Brokerage firm finance Fury to production

A major London brokerage firm has agreed to finance Fury Explorations’ Grantsville property to production. The value of recoverable silver from the modest heap leach project is said to compare favorably with many gold leaching operations in Nevada.

The novel financing arrangement with Greenwell Montagu & Co. involves a commitment of $1.35 million which will be repaid from 60% of profits. There are interest charges on the capital, an annual processing fee of 1% on all monies advanced and the broker has an option on 400,000 shares of Fury at 75 cents after payback.

Drill-proven reserves are 531,757 tons grading 4.39 oz silver per ton at a 1:1 strip ratio. In addition, there are 345,095 tons of drill-indicated reserves averaging 4.30 oz with a 2.5:1 strip ratio.

President James R. Glass confirms that capital costs for the project will be small — only about $330,000(US). Because the risk is so little, the company has opted not to conduct a bulk testing program in advance. Instead, it will rely on results from a non- agglomerated column leach test program which yielded a recovery of 71.3% after 109 days of leaching. Ore will be crushed to –3/4-in and agglomerated to improve recoveries and reduce the leach period further, he adds.

Mining and crushing will be done on a contract basis and leaching will take place over a 10-month period at least, he says. The side hill cut will simplify mining and the gently sloping terrain is conducive to low cost leach pad construction. Site location and the decision to utilize used equipment for plant construction are given as the reasons for the low capital cost.

The company’s conservative feasibility study projects an operating profit before income taxes over the next two years of $7.25 million(US) at a silver price of $5.50 per oz. The feasibility report concludes this return is extremely high relative to capital invested. The project is very sensitive to silver prices and a $1-per-oz increase would generate an extra $2.5 million in operating profit based on a 70% recovery rate.

The project could be in production this summer at a planned rate of 2,500 tons per day and silver recoveries are expected to be around 165,550 oz per month. A 300-gallon-per-minute Merrill- Crow precipitation plant will be installed and dore bullion would be poured right on site.