Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) has released a scoping study for the near-surface epithermal mineralisation at its Independence project, in Lander County, Nevada, with the preliminary assessment outlining a conventional, low-capital open-pit heap-leach operation supported by a portion of the project’s resource estimate.
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The study projects a post-tax net value at a 5% discount rate of ~A$511 million, an internal rate of return of 64%, and a capital payback in 1.4 years.
Key operational metrics include a production target of 31.9 million tonnes at 0.30 grams per tonne gold and 6.09 grams per tonne silver. The Nevada mine plan estimates recovered production of 250,000 ounces of gold and up to 1.77Moz silver over a 9.7-year mine life, utilising a strip ratio of 1.20 to one.
The operation is set up with a processing rate of 9K tonnes a day through a two-stage crushing circuit, heap leaching, and a Merrill-Crowe recovery plant.
Black Bear boss Dennis Lindgren said the scoping study has set up a “compelling” case for working at Independence, especially financially.
Importantly, these outcomes utilise only a portion of the current MRE and exclude both the substantially larger current epithermal resource and the high-grade skarn resource,” Mr Lindgren told shareholders today.
“This provides a strong foundation… as we incorporate the current resource, advance technical studies, and assess opportunities to enhance scale and value.”
The economic evaluation and production target incorporated 419,600 ounces of gold equivalent, representing a portion of the current epithermal mineral resource, and comprises 73% indicated resources and 27% inferred resources. The deeper high-grade skarn mineral resource and the wider expanded epithermal resource were excluded from the FY27 financial model.
Black Bear also plans to update the scoping study in future phases to incorporate the full resource inventory, alongside further infill drilling and metallurgical test work, the management team said today.
BKB opened at ~48.5c this morning.
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