As expected, Integra Gold (ICG.V) has released an updated resource estimate on its Lamaque gold project in Québec, following an extensive drill program. The updated estimate included the data of in excess of 45,000 meters of drilling which was conducted in the past 18 months. Since the cut-off date of the current resource estimate, Integra Gold has completed an additional 26,000 meters of drilling and plans to continue to work at Lamaque, aiming to complete a 50,000 meter drill program with multiple drill rigs.
The updated estimate contains 1.06 million ounces in the indicated category and an additional 330,000 ounces in the inferred category at an average grade of respectively 7.1 and 8.4 g/t (using a cut-off grade of 3g.t). If a cautious investor would like to increase the cut-off grade to 5 g/t, the Lamaque project still contains almost 1.1 million ounces of gold with ¾ in the indicated category at an average grade of 9.5 g/t.
It’s encouraging to see an indicated resource of just over 1 million ounces as Integra Gold needed to increase the M&I resources to incorporate these ounces in the mine plan for the pre-feasibility study (which cannot use inferred resources). Additionally, the mineralization at the Triangle zone remains open in all directions so we wouldn’t be surprised to see another increase from the current 520,000 indicated ounces.
Looking forward to a pre-feasibility study, there’s now very little doubt the Net Present Value of the Lamaque project will increase rather substantially as we now expect the mine life to be much longer than the 4.25 years projected in the PEA. Now the updated PEA and resource estimate have been released, we will publish a thorough review of Integra Gold in the near future.
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Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Integra Gold. Integra is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
