Eldorado Gold Posts Feasibility Study for Certej Project

Eldorado Gold Corp. (TSX:ELD,NYSE:EGO) announced yesterday the completion of a feasibility study for its 80.5-percent-owned Certej project in Romania. Eldorado subsidiary Deva Gold SA was involved in the study’s completion.

Study highlights include:

• Generation of a post-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 13% and a net present value (‘NPV’) at a 5% discount rate of $229 million.
• An open pit strip ratio of 2.96:1, mining a total of 44 million tonnes (Mt) of ore over the life of mine.
• Estimated cash operating costs of $568/oz and all-in sustaining costs of $745/oz.
• Initial capital estimate of $449 million and sustaining capital estimate of $203 million (including closure).
• Processing rate of ~8,000 tonnes per day (‘tpd’) would produce an average of 140,000 oz Au and 830,000 oz Ag per year.
• Confirmation of Pressure Oxidation (POX) for mineral processing; regarded as Best Available Technology.
• Recoveries of 87.4% and 80% for gold and silver respectively.

Major assumptions are as follows:

• Discount rate of 5%.
• Values are presented on a 100% basis.
• Gold price of $1,250/oz, silver price of $16.50/oz.
• Exchange Rates: 1 USD = 4 RON; 1 USD = 0.91 EUR.
• Tax Rate of 16%.
• Royalty Rate of 6%.
• Transport & refining cost of $9.50/oz Au.

Paul N. Wright, CEO of Eldorado, commented:

The positive results of this study form the basis for Eldorado, together with our Romanian partners, to develop the Certej mine.  Significant detailed engineering design and cost estimating provides for a high degree of confidence in the capital estimate and projected operating performance of the Certej project.

Click here to read the full Eldorado Gold Corp. (TSX:ELD,NYSE:EGO) press release.