One of the highlights of the report period ended Oct. 6 was the tabling of a prefeasibility study of Colorado-based Canyon Resources‘ 10.9-million-oz. McDonald gold project in Montana, which has been stalled for years by Montana’s anti-mining initiative I-137. The new study, by Chlumsky, Armbrust & Meyer, is a reworking of a 1993 feasibility by Davey International. Canyon envisages a run-of-mine (no crushing) leaching operation that would produce 6.22 million oz. gold and 18.7 million oz. silver over 14 years at a total cash cost, including royalty, of US$188 per oz. gold. The re-design has several environmental advantages over the 1993 design: no facilities will be built on the alluvial valley of the Blackfoot River; in-pad solution storage, which will prevent the problem of open ponds; State Highway 200 will not be relocated; waste rock piles will be lined so as to contain any seepage; and leach pads will be capped with an impermeable synthetic liner. Canyon closed up a penny at US$1.78.
Santiago, Chile-based Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, a producer of specialty fertilizers, iodine and lithium, continued its year-long rise, this week adding $2.08 to hit $42.07 — more than double the year-ago price and returning to highs last seen in early 1999. The company’s results for the first half of 2003 tell the story: earnings soared 21.5% to US$22.8 million (US87 per ADR); and revenues rocketed 27.4% to US$325.0 million.
Golden Eagle International was unchanged at US19 as it celebrated the 5,700th ounce of gold poured during the first year of production at its small Cangalli underground mine in Bolivia.
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