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Gabriel owns 80% of the mining project while the state-owned company Minvest holds the remainder.
So far, the company has spent nearly US$1.9 million on relocation compensation payments, and 66 property owners have already completed their moves from the town. In all, more than 600 property-owners are engaged in relocation talks with Gabriel. The company needs to resettle about 500 properties, including 150 houses, before construction can begin. Over the mine’s proposed 17-year life span, the company will need to acquire another 1,500 properties, including 770 houses.
The resettlement plan has been delayed by the surveying of individual properties and the updating of land cards to document legal titles. So far, titles for 583 of the 2,000 affected properties have been updated.
Based on discussions with local government and residents, Gabriel has selected three resettlement sites, two of which are in the immediate vicinity of Rosia Montana. The company is working on acquiring the sites and submitting construction applications.
Earlier this year, Gabriel unveiled an optimization study by SNC Lavalin for the Rosia Montana project. The plan draws on two feasibility studies completed last autumn; it calls for mining of 13 million tonnes per year over 16 years and annual production of 500,000 oz. at a total production cost of US$157 per oz. The initial capital cost of the mine would be US$253 million.
Overall, the open-pit operation would target a massive but low-grade reserve of 208 million tonnes grading 1.56 grams gold and 7.8 grams silver per tonne (or 10.4 million contained ounces gold and 52 million contained ounces silver).
SNC is working on the project’s basic engineering, which should be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2002.
After an oversubscribed, non-brokered private placement earlier this year, Gabriel had $68 million in cash.
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