Northwest Copper shares jump on strong results from Kwanika

NorthWest Copper extends Kwanika high-grade zoneNorthWest Copper's Kwanika project Credit: NorthWest Copper.

Northwest Copper (TSXV: NWST; US-OTC: NWCCF) shares surged 17% to 24.5¢ apiece in Monday afternoon trading in Toronto on assay results from its Kwanika copper-gold deposit near the town of Fort St. James in central British Columbia.

The company reported hole K-22-255 cut one of the longest and highest-grade copper-gold intervals ever drilled at Kwanika, returning 399.8 metres of 0.62% copper, 0.74 gram gold per tonne and 2 grams silver per tonne (1.01% copper-equivalent) from 152.2 metres downhole.

The drillhole included higher grade assay intervals including 23.4 metres grading 2.12% copper, 0.7 gram gold and 6.2 grams silver (2.51% copper-equivalent); 64 metres of 1% copper, 2.17 grams gold and 2.9 grams silver (2.12% copper-equivalent); and 22.5 metres of 1.15% copper, 2.95 grams gold and 3.6 grams silver (2.67% copper-equivalent).

“The hole shows a typical Kwanika pattern of copper dominant material higher in the hole then becoming much richer in gold at depth,” Peter Bell, the company’s president and CEO, stated in a news release.

Northwest Copper noted that the bottom of the hole ended in copper and gold mineralization.

The hole was not included in a preliminary economic assessment the company announced on Jan. 5. The PEA analyzed combining the Kwanika and nearby Stardust deposits. Stardust is a small but higher grade deposit.

The early-stage study envisioned an open pit and underground mining operation with a life of 11.9 years. The 22,000-tonne per day operation would produce copper and gold in a copper concentrate. The project would deliver 90.5 million lb. of copper-equivalent output per year at a cash cost of US$1.58 per lb. copper-equivalent and an all-in sustaining cost of US$2.01 per lb. copper-equivalent.

Initial capex was pegged at $567.9 million with an after-tax payback of 6.4 years. Total operations capex came in at $1.3 billion, which includes underground development and sustaining capital.

The study outlined an after-tax net present value at a 7% discount rate of $215 million and an internal rate of return of 12.7%.

In the mine plan, 95.6 million tonnes of mineralized material and 86.9 million tonnes of waste would be mined over the mine life. Life-of-mine average grades are pegged at 0.39% copper, 0.39 gram gold per tonne, and 2.21 grams silver per tonne for a copper-equivalent grade of 0.62%.

A tailings storage facility would accommodate over 96.3 million tonnes of tailings produced over the mine life. The facility would be built in a valley east of the Stardust deposit and upstream of the processing plant.

Material would be mined from four areas: the Kwanika Central open pit in years one to four; Stardust underground (years four to nine); the Kwanika Central underground block cave (years four to 12); and Kwanika South open pit (years nine to 12).

This year the company will be studying whether to combine Kwanika-Stardust with its Lorraine project, about 40 km away. Over the last year the junior has traded in a range of 19¢ and 74¢ per share. Northwest Copper has about 167.2 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of roughly $41.8 million.

Print

Be the first to comment on "Northwest Copper shares jump on strong results from Kwanika"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*


By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information

Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience. If you have ideas for how we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to email us. By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy & Cookie Usage Policy to learn more.

Close