Integra Reports “Exceptional” Economic Assessment for DeLamar

Precious metals explorer Integra Resources (TSXV:ITR,OTCQX:IRRZF) has released what it calls an “exceptional” maiden preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the DeLamar gold-silver project in Idaho.  

The initial assessment has pegged the after-tax net present value of DeLamar at C$472 million, with an average annual after-tax free cash flow of C$81 million once the project enters production.

In an updated resource report released in July, the measured and indicated estimate noted DeLamar contained 2.3 million ounces of gold and 116 million ounces of silver.

With a pre-production CAPEX of C$213 million, Integra has planned an open pit, heap-leach project with a 27,000 tonnes per day production rate. The sourcing oxide and transitional mineralization will come from both the DeLamar deposit and the adjacent Florida Mountain resource.

“Presenting a scenario for generating approximately C$697 million in cumulative after-tax cash flow, Integra’s maiden DeLamar project PEA highlights a strong premise for an extraordinary, high-margin and long-life mining operation in a great Tier 1, infrastructure-rich mining jurisdiction,” George Salamis, Integra’s president and CEO, commented.

The PEA also indicates several areas available to Integra for further exploration, including oxide and transitional mineralization situated along the margins of the DeLamar and Florida Mountain deposits.

The precious metals explorer is currently conducting step-out drilling in this target area in hopes of expanding the larger oxide and transitional resource in the future.

In addition to expansion, there is also a large amount of low grade waste material from previous mining activity stockpiled around DeLamar. Integra will examine and analyze the waste for economic potential.

“This study is simply a starting point for us in terms of further value enhancement to come in the near-term,” Salamis explained.

“A large portion of the DeLamar unoxidized resource has been excluded from this study, and there remain substantial undrilled areas with upside potential for oxide and transitional gold-silver mineralization along the margins of the current DeLamar and Florida Mountain resources that are completely open for resource expansion.”

Beyond continued exploration, the next step in advancing the gold and silver project towards production will be completing a prefeasibility study which the company plans to submit for review sometime in 2021.

Integra acquired the DeLamar project in November 2017 from a wholly owned subsidiary of Kinross Gold (TSX:K,NYSE:KGC). Kinross retained a 7 percent stake in the company through shares.

Shares of Integra Resources were up 1.53 percent on Wednesday (September 11), trading at C$1.31.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.