Trigon Metals Inc. further optimized the preliminary economic assessment of its proposed Kombat mine in Namibia, in conjunction with filing an updated technical report for the property.
The company said March 23 that the optimization increased the net present value of the development to US$96 million, at a real discount rate of 10.92%, with an 85.2% internal rate of return.
In early February, an improved financial model for Kombat defined a net present value of US$86.7 million, at a real discount rate of 10.92%, with a 98.6% internal rate of return.
Start-up capital required for initial open pit production is estimated at US$7.2 million, while direct CapEx over the life of the mine is pegged at US$67.7 million.
Trigon Metals said the optimization was related to a slight change in resources as compared to the early February estimate, with indicated and inferred resources totaling 7 million tonnes grading 2.64% copper, 1.13% lead and 18.58 g/t of silver. Contained metal is estimated at 185,591 tonnes of copper, 79,706 tonnes of lead and 130,781 kilograms of silver.
The estimate covers open pit and underground resources at the Kombat, Otavi and Asis deposits.
The previous estimate defined 7.1 million tonnes grading 2.62% copper, 1.15% lead and 18.40 g/t of silver for 186,259 tonnes of copper, 81,490 tonnes of lead and 130,842 kilograms of silver.
