Pueblo Viejo feasibility

摘要

Placer Dome Inc. of Canada has started a full feasibility study of the Pueblo Viejo gold-silver-zinc project in the Dominican Republic, following ratification by the Dominican authorities of the company's 'special lease agreement' made last year (MJ, August 17, 2001, p.126). Placer is committed to spending 10 million US dollars on the feasibility study, and has four years within which to make a decision whether or not to proceed with development. However, the company indicated this week that it expects to make its decision in about 15 months' time. Based on the publicly available data that Placer used to decide its initial involvement, the company envisages an operation producing 400,000 oz/y of gold over a mine life of 33 years. Pueblo Viejo, located about 100 km north of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Caribbean country, was mined for its oxide resources since the mid-1970s. The operation was nationalised in 1979, and production ceased in June 1999 when the oxide reserves were exhausted. Total production had been about 5.5 Moz of gold and 25 Moz of silver