Rio2 aims for early 2026 gold pour as Chile mine | Australian Markets

Rio2 Limited is concentrating on early 2026 for a first gold pour on the company’s Fenix Gold project in Chile’s Atacama area. Construction is at present 19 per cent full and on price range at one of the Americas’ greatest undeveloped oxide gold performs.

A complete of US$30.1 million has been spent to date, simply a smidgen beneath the company’s US$30.5M forecast price range so far, with main construction milestones already checked off and a string of different developments nonetheless to come back this yr.

Perched high in Chile’s legendary Maricunga gold belt at a lofty 4500 metres, Rio2’s Fenix Gold project spans 2000 hectares and hosts 389 million tonnes of ore going at 0.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for a whopping 4.8 million ounces of gold within the measured and indicated class.

The company’s initial plan – anticipated to value US$135M (A$211M) in initial investment capital – is to provide 91,000 ounces a yr at a larger grade 0.54g/t gold for 12 years. The mine is forecast to average 82,000 ounces a yr at 0.48g/t gold over a 17-year life.

Underpinning the project’s healthy economics, the all-in sustaining value of extracting the gold is forecast to run at a low-cost US$1250 per ounce, due to an ultra-low 0.85:1 stripping ratio.

In a departure from conventional massive mining initiatives, Rio2 is building a run-of-mine heap leach operation at Fenix Gold to course of the ore.

Heap leaching is a system of piling ore on a thick polyethylene pad and spraying it with a chemical resolution to dissolve and extract the gold. Since the need for crushing and a tailings dam is eradicated, the mine’s footprint and environmental load needs to be dramatically diminished.

The company’s focus prior to now 5 months has zeroed in on vital path infrastructure, together with upgrades to entry its roads and the set up of a pregnant leach resolution pond.

The 10ha leach pad is because of be completed subsequent month, full with over- liner supplies.

An adsorption-desorption-recovery plant is already properly underway and is set to be sealed and winter-ready shortly. Rio2 has pencilled in plant commissioning for November.

Management says all long-lead procurement objects have both been acquired and positioned in storage or locked in for supply, smoothing the way in which for the project’s subsequent development part.

A grade control drilling program has begun throughout the initial pit areas to cowl the primary three years of deliberate manufacturing, which is geared toward de-risking the early years of the mine plan.

Rio2’s 2023 feasibility examine put a conservative US$210.3m (A$333m) after-tax internet current worth (NPV) at a 5 per cent low cost price on its Chilean gold project, assuming a gold price of simply US$1750 an ounce. This is enough to ship a strong 3.5-year payback.

With gold now trading at close to double that price, Rio2’s upside appears to be like large. Rio2’s modelling reveals the NPV will blast to US$546M (A$854M) at a gold price of US$2250, with the project throwing off a beautiful 64 per cent inside price of return.

Rio2 can also be operating a ruler over a part two growth plan that would turbocharge output to 250,000–300,000 ounces of gold a yr by lifting day by day processing charges on the project from 20,000t to 80,000t. The examine is slated for a December reveal.

The website is now a hive of exercise with 1240 personnel – together with contractors – employed on construction works. Rio2 says it has taken specific care to give attention to recruiting a native workforce, 94 per cent of whom are Chilean with 41 per cent hailing from the native Atacama area. Eleven per cent of the location’s group is feminine, which is according to ESG requirements for gender range in mining.

With boots on the ground and strict requirements in place, the company’s dedication to secure, accountable development seems clear. Fenix Gold has to date logged more than 657,000 hours with just one misplaced time incident coming from a finger damage – leading to a misplaced time incident frequency price of 1.52.

For a junior such as Rio2, Fenix Gold is an formidable and transformative enterprise. However, with timelines holding firm and milestones falling into place, the project seems to be shaping up as a flagship instance of fashionable, accountable mining in South America.

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