Trilogy Metals announce feasibility study results

Trilogy Metals Inc. has announced positive results of its feasibility study (FS) for the Arctic copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold project n the Ambler mining district of Northwestern Alaska, USA. The Arctic Project is held by Ambler Metals LLC, the joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd. The FS was prepared on a 100% ownership basis, of which Trilogy’s share is 50%.

The FS describes the technical and economic viability of establishing a conventional opencast copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold mine-and-mill complex for a 10 000 tpd operation for a minimum 12-year mine life. The base case scenario utilises long-term metal prices of US$3.00/lb for copper, US$1.10/lb for zinc, US$1.00/lb for lead, US$1,300/oz for gold and US$18.00/oz for silver.

Tony Giardini, President and CEO of Trilogy Metals, commented: “Arctic is a special project due to its unique high-grade polymetallic nature. The only other time that I’ve seen a project of this quality where the grades were similar was in an underground mining scenario. However, Arctic is mineable in an opencast scenario. I also want to highlight that Arctic contains a significant amount of gold and silver. At current spot metal prices, the precious metals output represents almost 20% of its revenue. The annual gold equivalent (gold and silver) payable output is about 80 000 oz/y.”

Jim Gowans, Director of Trilogy Metals and the company’s representative on the Board of Ambler Metals, added: “Arctic is located in the extremely prospective Ambler Mining District, in a mining friendly jurisdiction, in Alaska, USA, where solid environmental regulations and a balanced permitting process is established. I am also very pleased that we are working with NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., who understand mining and have an established record of working at the Red Dog Mine.”