Integra Gold (ICG.V) has released an updated resource estimate on the sourthern part of its Lamaque gold project in Québec, Canada. Based on an additional 28,000 meters of drilling, the total resource now stands at 1.67 million ounces of gold at an average grade of approximately 9 g/t (using a cutoff grade of 5 g/t which we believe is the most prudent thing to do).
Even though not a lot of tonnage has been added to the indicated resources (just 340,000 tonnes and 60,000 ounces gold), the inferred resources have increased by quite a bit as Integra Gold has added 2 million tonnes and 530,000 ounces to that category. There’s no reason to be disappointed the majority of the increase in ounces is in the inferred category, as this updated resource estimate was based on just 28,000 meters of additional drilling. Integra has completed another 43,400 meters of drilling outside of the Triangle Zone, and an additional 17,000 meters of drilling at Triangle has been completed after the cut off date of the resource estimate, so we dare to bet the total amount of ounces in the indicated category will increase rather substantially in the next resource update.
In the report we released just two weeks ago, we said we would like to see a total resource estimate of 1.6-1.7 million ounces of gold and with 1.67 million ounces, Integra has achieved our goal. We also said we’d aim for an after-tax NPV5% of C$300M if Integra would be able to include 1.3 million ounces in the mine plan, and that’s now most definitely bound to happen as the next resource update(s) should increase Integra’s estimate to in excess of 2 million ounces.
It’s really refreshing to see the market is rewarding the hard work done by the Integra team as the share price has increased by approximately 50% in just three months time.
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Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Integra Gold. Integra Gold is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
At a 5 g/t cut-off, Integra Gold added 1,954,900 inferred tonnes
An increase of approximately 450%