Canamex unveils updated PEA for Nevada gold project

Canamex Gold Corp. [CSQ-TSXV; CNMXF-OTCBB, CX6-FSE] on Thursday January 25 released an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) report for its Bruner Gold Project in Nye County, Nevada. The updated PEA was prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 standards of compliance. Base case results are predicated on 100%-ownership and a gold price of US $1,280 an ounce and a silver price of US $17 an ounce.

The key outcomes of the updated PEA are as follows:

• Average annual production of 42,500 ounces of gold and 44,250 ounces of silver;
• Average annual cash cost of US $577/oz of gold produced in the first two years of operations and US $872/oz thereafter, for an average cash cost of US $796/oz;
• A 10-year mine life, including two-year tail of gold and silver recovery after mining;
• Oxide heap leaching processing with 90% recovery of gold on single-stage crushed material and 75% recovery of gold on run-of-mine material;
• Low initial capital of $37.8 million, including royalty buy-outs, a contingency of US $4.8 million, but not including working capital of US$6.8 million.

Canamex cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature, in that it includes inferred mineral resources which are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would allow them to be characterized as mineral reserves. Canamex said the PEA adds 93,000 ounces of indicated gold and 826,000 ounces of silver resources to estimates announced in a 2016 PEA.

The company has been advised to conduct additional drilling to improve confidence levels in the inferred resources by converting them to the indicated category. Canamex has also been advised to test the open extensions of the current resources.

Aside from Bruner, Canamex is still in the exploration phase with its Silverton gold property, also located in Nevada. Canamex has described Silverton as a Carlin-type gold exploration target, which is located near the former Silverton Mine about 100 km northeast of Tonopah. The property has been explored intermittently since the 1980s.

The updated PEA has emerged after Canamex recently announced that it had executed terms of agreement (TOA) with Harmonychain AS to consider the issues around an initial coin offering of asset-backed digital tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain technology, and whether the company could utilize this new technology in future offerings. Harmonychain has several patented applications pending within Blockchain technology. These include physical delivery systems related to Blockchain Contracts, and security systems related to breach of Blockchain security.  Canamex CEO David Vincent has said he believes the agreement with Harmonychain could be an important step for the company.

“The new paradigm of secure digital currencies and tokens opens a new opportunity for Canamex, as a potential alternative means of doing financings,” Vincent said recently. “We believe that this concept could be a first for the industry,” he said.

Vincent went on to say that one of the great benefits with raising capital via this concept is that there could be minimal dilution for the shareholders. In addition to the benefits from transparency, the potential asset backing of the Tokens, and it being attractive compared to traditional debt or equity financings, he said.

Canamex Gold shares rose 7.69% or $0.015 to 21 cents in early afternoon trading Thursday.