Aura Minerals Announces Results of Feasibility Study for Ernesto Pau-a-Pique Project

Aura Minerals (TSX:ORA) has announced results from the feasibility study for the Ernesto/Pau-a-Pieque project in Brazil.
As quoted in the press release:

The Feasibility Study supports a systematic sequence to launch three gold mines starting with the Lavrinha open pit gold deposit, followed by the re-start of the Pau-a-Pique underground gold deposit and subsequently the development and production of the Ernesto underground gold deposit.
Jim Bannantine, the Company’s President and CEO noted, “We believe that the results of the Study show that the Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique Project will help to support Aura Minerals’ operational presence inBrazil for the years to come. The Project is shown to be mostly self-financeable with the selected mining sequence, which will minimize the risks for the Company. We believe the Project has tremendous upside potential as well and we are very encouraged by its prospects.”
BASE CASE OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS AND PROJECT PERFORMANCE:

• Gold price: Baseline economic evaluation: US$1,300/oz Au
• Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves: 2.3 Mt @ 3.16 g/t Au containing 233,600 oz Au
• Average Gold Production: 41,000 oz/year over approximately 5.5 years.
• Foreign Exchange Rate: 3.2:1 (BRA: USD)
• Initial CAPEX: US$17.3 M (Partially funded by the Yamana Debt Facility; including working capital and contingency)
• NPV @ 5% (after tax): US$39.5M
• IRR (after tax): 77%

The Project consists of the Lavrinha open pit, the Pau-a-Pique underground mine and the Ernesto deposit which have been reviewed in the Study; as well as three additional areas to be evaluated in 2017 and 2018 (e.g. Nosde, Japones and Pombihnas).

Click here to read the full press release.