Tyhee Awards Final Engineering Contract and Initiates Peer Review of Feasibility Study CAPEX
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/25/13 -- Tyhee Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TDC) ("Tyhee" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has awarded the contract for Final Engineering and Procurement for the Yellowknife Gold Project (YGP) to Lyntek, Inc. ("Lyntek") of Denver, Colorado. The Company has also contracted Merit Consultants International Inc. ("Merit") of Vancouver, British Columbia to perform a peer review of the CAPEX of the independent YGP Feasibility Study, released in August 2012, and prepared by SRK Consulting, Knight Piesold and Lyntek out of their Denver, Colorado offices.
Tyhee's President and CEO, Brian Briggs, said, "These engagements with these two well respected and experienced firms represent the latest important milestones in our advancement of the YGP towards production, targeted in 2015. Lyntek will provide a detailed plan for all of the project's real engineering and logistical requirements, while Merit will be supplementing the estimates provided in the Feasibility Study with an even more detailed break-down of the best and most cost effective way to manage and deploy the capital that will be going into this project."
About these Companies:
Lyntek is located in Lakewood, Colorado and has been providing engineering and construction management services to the natural resources and environmental remediation industries since 1982. Lyntek provides services from process engineering and feasibility studies through detailed engineering, procurement, construction management, plant start-up, and pilot plants. Lyntek has developed projects on every continent, including the following recent projects:
-- El Aguila Project, Gold Resources Corp., Oxide Plant and Sulfide Plant.
Sulfide Concentrator Expansion EPCM.
-- Cerro Jumil, Esperanza Resources, EPCM for the Merrill-Crowe recovery
plant for the Cerro Jumil heap leach project.
-- Climax HDS Project, (FMI) Phelps Dodge, Inc. Pilot plant design,
Construction & operation of the Water Treatment facility.
-- Balkan Mineral and Mining EAD Krumovgrad Project, Dundee Precious
Metals, Inc., Definitive Feasibility Study for a gold / silver
processing facility.
-- San Vicente, Pan American Silver, Feasibility Study, EPCM for a Silver,
Zinc, Lead and Copper concentrator.
In addition to these recent projects, Lyntek has extensive experience working on precious metals projects in cold weather regions throughout the world, notably two projects in Northern Alaska (Nixon Fork and Illinois Creek), as well as gold projects for the government of Magadan, and Geometal in Siberia.
Merit has provided Project and Construction Management services to numerous companies in the mining sector, including many projects with both study and construction levels similar to the Yellowknife Gold Project, several of which were gold projects located in northern environments.
Some of Merit's recent projects in these areas include:
-- Fort Knox Mine Capital Project, Alaska - providing Construction
Management services;
-- Diavik Diamond Mine, NWT - continuing to provide Construction Management
services;
-- Rainy River Gold, Ontario - providing Feasibility Study support services
for a 20,000 tonne-per-day plant;
-- Kitsault Molybdenum Project, BC - review of the capital costs and
constructability of the
Project during the previous study stage;
-- Faro Mine Reclamation, Yukon - provided Construction Management
services.
Merit also continues to work with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) for the planning stage for the reclamation work at the Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories.
About Tyhee Gold: Tyhee is focused on developing the first gold mine on its flagship Yellowknife Gold Project ("YPG") in Canada's Northwest Territories. The project is located in the same prolific Archaen Greenstone Belt as the renowned world class "Con-Giant" deposit, which produced a combined 14 million ounces of gold. Tyhee is led by a veteran, project-driven, management team committed to aggressively advancing a permitting and development path targeted to enable mine construction to begin in 2014. An independent Feasibility Study ("FS") has been prepared by SRK Consulting, Knight Piesold and Lyntek, Inc. out of their Denver, Colorado offices, which estimated that, at a base-case gold price of US$1,400 per ounce and a projected 4,000 tonnes-per-day processing plant comprised of a conventional gravity-flotation-cyanide process and incorporating open-pit and underground mining methods on the Ormsby, Bruce Lake, Clan Lake and Nicholas Lake deposits, the YGP is estimated to return a pre-tax net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate of approximately $216 million and an internal rate of return of 20% based on initial estimated capital cost of $193 million (including a 10% contingency.) At current gold prices of approximately US$1,600 per oz., the YGP would have an NPV of $375 million, an IRR of 28% and a payback period of 30 months.
The study also estimated Proven and Probable mineral reserves(1) for the YGP at 20,433,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.03 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold, containing 1,334,000 ounces of gold, resulting in a mine-life of approximately 15 years. Tyhee's technical team has identified six separate gold deposits in the YGP, including Ormsby, Bruce Lake, Clan Lake, Nicholas Lake and Goodwin Lake. These areas have a combined Measured and Indicated resource(2) estimated to total 1,715,000 ounces of gold contained in 27,115,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.97 g/t, and Inferred resources of 487,000 ounces of gold contained in 5,774,000 tonnes at 2.62 g/t.
(1) The mineral reserve estimate for the YGP is shown above and was calculated by Bret C Swanson BE (Min), Principal Consultant, of SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. Effective Date of July 1, 2012. Reserves are inclusive of mineral resources.
(2) The mineral resource for the YGP shown above was estimated by Jeff Volk, P. Geo. of SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. Effective Date of July 1, 2012.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain of the statements and information in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "estimates", "intends", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements or information.
Forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: resource estimate, grades on the Yellowknife Gold Project; scope of mineralization within the Yellowknife Gold Project; geological interpretations and potential mineral recovery processes.
Forward-looking statements or information are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information, including, without limitation, risks relating to: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold or certain other commodities; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada or other countries in which the Company may carry on business in the future; the uncertainties involved in interpreting geological data; business opportunities that may be presented to, or pursued by, the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining activities; the speculative nature of gold exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits; diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; and contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of gold exploration, development and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or the inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks).
This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements or information are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.
The Company's forward-looking statements and information are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this press release, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements and information if circumstances or management's assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or changes in any other events affecting such statements or information. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
GT Investor Relations Inc.
Greg Taylor
O: 905 337-7673 or C: 416 605-5120
gtaylor@tyhee.com
Tyhee Gold Corp.
Brian Briggs
President
604 681-2877
info@tyhee.com