RE:Article about the NFG / MAE deal...This is excellent news and exactly what myself and others have been making the case for on this Board.
What also makes the Pine Cove mill very valuable in a region where all of the gold is sulphide, requiring Floatation to concentrate production ,which must then be shipped elsewhere for conversion to gold dore, is that the Pine Cove mill can Regrind that concentrate to produce gold dore by leaching.
The sorting technology has been bulk tested there four times, all showing excellent percentage .65% waste rock removal .
Pine cover also has a double communition circuit ensuring very high gold recoveries.
So, let's say Keats open pit has ROM grade of 10 grams per ton.
That ore will emerge from the sorter with a head grade of about 16 grams per ton and 60% less waste ore dilution .....and, as grade and cash cost are inversely related..at a cash cost well below peer levels.
The ongoing scoping study will be very interesting as to whether to buy MAE outright or just toll mill QW ore there.
As I have pointed out, the HD mine will begin minining within 12 months or so and with a sorted head grade of 6.7 grams per ton , will begin production at about 95,000 ounces per year at a cash cost well below peer level.
Its unlikely they will renounce the Pine Cove mill for NFG for milling while mining the HD mine.
They do have the smaller Nugget Pond mill as an alaternative but that too won't give NFG the earliest cash flows.
That can only come from acquiring MAE and using that listing to convert MAE into NFG's exploration arm , while enabling NFG to concentrate on sequentially bringing its many open pits into early production via MAE' s two mills capable of annual production in excess of 300,000 ounces per year of XRAY sorted gold ore from NFG pits.......and assuming MAE' s planned Hub and Spoke business model.....
This makes absolute common business sense .....which meets shareholders concerns that we need early cash flows to fund continueing exploration of QW North.
In this scenario , everyone wins.