Great article.... Torex gunning for 5Moz resource at Mexican gold project
Torex Gold, which owns the Morelos project located 180 km southwest of Mexico City, is hoping to grow the deposit’s measured and indicated resources by around 40% to five million ounces when it announces a new estimate later this month.
CEO Fred Stanford said in an interview this week the TSX-listed company would then complete a feasibility study on the project in July, with early capital estimates standing at “not more than $600-million”.
Torex, which changed its name from Gleichen Resources and listed in February after buying Morelos from Tech Resources, aims to fund the project’s construction through a combination of debt and equity, and has already engaged banks in this regard.
More than half of the funding will likely come from equity, Stanford told Mining Weekly Online in a telephone interview.
“We’re targeting construction beginning next year, so it will be later in the fall [when the company finalises financing],” he said.
“A number of banks are interested and are actively engaged.”
Torex has pencilled in early 2015 for first production.
Stanford said it is still too early to predict how many ounces the mine will produce each year, but hinted that its life “won’t be a whole lot more than ten years”, which suggests output could be sizeable, given the five-million ounce resource the company is hoping to prove.
Big and juicy enough to make it a potential acquisition target?
“It’s a very attractive asset, so it is pretty hard to imagine that people don’t take a look at it,” is all Stanford would say.
The project had problems with security early last year, when robbers held up Torex staff and stole some half-ton trucks, but the company has resolved this in conjunction with the Mexican government, which he said had “been incredibly supportive”.
The project has good access to water, power and transport routes, Stanford added.
Torex’s predecessor bought the 21.1% of Morelos it did not own from Canadian gold major Goldcorp in early 2010 for C$52-million.
The company edged 1% higher in Thursday Toronto trade to reach $1.82 a share, giving it a market value of around C$752-million.