It’s been about two years since any new photos to the website.
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Doesn’t take much for a worker to take photos with his phone and post them on the company Twitter. I can never understand with this company why everything is so hush hush. Let’s f’ing gooooo already! GOLD IS ALMOST AT 2200!
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That’s what I was saying in my previous post. They were posting photos of the veins when they were drilling and they can’t post a photo of the stockpiled ore? Seems kinda strange maybe they haven’t stockpiled that much to post a photo. I hope that is not the case.
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Hulk this could be the reason why. Makes sense to me. We shall see what MC has been up to in April update.
Did they post any photos of PDAC on Twitter/X? They used to post some photos of the event.
No. Checked yesterday and nothing. Last photo was from Mischo team inside the Fortuna.
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Amparo Quijano Claro bio added to Directors on website:
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Well it seems the Mr. Maurizio does not want to post any photos of the stockpiled ore. Maybe they don’t even have any ore stockpiled. If we miss this Gold bull run again like the previous ones then we might as well stick our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye!!
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DD,
Stockpiled ore won’t be considered until a milling plan has been developed and permits are approved. Then, the stockpiled ore will come into play.
In the extraction of metal from a mine, the intermediate ore between the economic and the breakeven cutoff grade is usually stockpiled for future processing once the mine is depleted.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301420716000064)
The above statement can be applied to any developing miner before full scale mining has started. I used Lion One as an example in an earlier post.
We’ve been more than patient, just keep this stock in sock drawer; profit from the best producing miners with a profitable cash flow.
EZ
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How is she related to Juan Jose Quijano Fernandez and his son Juan Jose Quijano Claro?
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She’s good ole Juanito daughter and Claro sister.
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Hey Doc, its been 8 years since Auryn has taken over. It needs to be one hell of a payoff for any of this to be worth the wait. Most here need MDMN to get well north of .01 pps just to break even. Gold is at all time highs and yet still no word on financing. What are you going to say when the next update comes out and theres still no financing in place for the flotation plant?
Surely you need to be pretty dam frustrated despite your outward optimism. If they are sitting on a motherlode, it shouldn’t be this difficult. All you keep talking about is all time lows in discoveries and all time highs in demand and gold prices. So what gives?
Also, Kevin you have been mysteriously MIA for quite some time. It would nice if this company can offer some more concrete insight instead of these BS updates. If Baldy claims that docs prognosis is beyond ridiculous even according to the company itself, its time for the MC to hold a call with shareholders. We need some realistic expecatations and projections from the company. If one of the largest, longest and loyal shareholders (Brecciaboy) could be grossly misinterpretting the updates, part of the blame needs to be placed on MC and co putting out less than transparent updates.
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Well said!
In 8 years we could have panned more gold out of old tailings than what has been produced so far……show us devoted shareholders something besides pie in the sky!
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For example, Baldy confidently claims that the mine is under “care and maintenance” yet the last 2 updates both mention extracting ore. WTF!
I mean yes its a huge strech for BB to estimate $30M+ in stockpiled ore but the company leaves the door open for misinterpretation. The most recent of the last 2 updates says the production is “modest”. That doesn’t suggest care and maintenance only.
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How much money has modest production generated and what was it used for???
Wow gold over 2200! Hope MC is watching and starts moving!!
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Just imagine what that stockpile is worth now!
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Hi JimmyP,
In estimating the VALUE of the ore stockpiled to date, about all we can do is go with the facts that have been presented to date, and they are voluminous. Part of the VALUE of the stockpiled ore has to do with simple concepts like INTRA-ADIT HEAD GRADE (“mill grade”) and Tonnage of the ore present while other criteria like how amenable the stockpiled ore is to being beneficiated via low-cost beneficiation methodologies, like froth flotation and carbon in leach systems, is extremely critical to VALUE. Management referenced this recently when they told us that if we “froth float” our ore on-site and store the tailings on-site at the ADL, there will be a “direct financial impact of around $5,000 per ton.”
Recall how the DL2 Vein ore, when exposed to inexpensive beneficiation methodologies like froth flotation and probably also carbon in leach treatment, both of which cost only about $10 per tonne, responded by increasing revenues by $5,000 per tonne over and above what the ore was worth when DIRECT SHIPPED to the Enami smelters (about $4,900 per month in nominal value net of Enami’s fees). Enami charges about $200 per tonne to smelt your ore. If you can get rid of a huge percentage of your ore’s impurities by spending a couple of bucks, then very little tonnage of your ore will ever have to be sent to an expensive smelter, if any at all, has to be sent to one. So, the response of your ore to inexpensive beneficiation treatments is critical when estimating a VALUE to a stockpile of ore. This $5,000 per tonne “bonus” is the reason for stockpiling in the first place, versus DIRECT SHIPPING to an Enami smelter.
In assigning a VALUE to stockpiled ore, we need to estimate the TONNAGE of the stockpiled ore, the AVERAGE GRADE of the stockpiled ore, and the planned beneficiation steps about to occur to that ore as well as how amenable that ore is to being concentrated. In a situation like this, I’d do 2 estimations for placing a “value” on the stockpiled ore. With one, I’d assume that the ore is going to be “DIRECT SHIPPED” to the Enami smelter, probably at Caletones, since the one at Las Ventanas, is being mothballed. NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THE PLAN BUT IT HAS TO BE PART OF THE CALCULUS ANYWAYS. With the other valuation estimate, I’d assume that it will be “froth floated” on-site with the grade being quadrupled as is the norm for FF circuits. As of now, the plan is to build a FF circuit on-site.
The economics of “froth floating” their own ore on-site for Auryn, will lead to them earning an extra $5,000 per tonne produced over and above what Enami would pay for DIRECT SHIPPING the stockpiled ore to one of their smelters. That is a very large number which tells us that the ore was very amenable to the inexpensive beneficiation methodologies like froth flotation. If the FF process didn’t work very well with the DL2 Vein ore, then there wouldn’t have been a unanimous vote of the BOD to build an FF circuit. Management knows how well the FF process works on our ore, the engineers at the University of San Sebastian have been testing the FF process on our ore for over 27 months. A while back, management made a comment that the lab testing results were “EXTREMELY ENCOURAGING”, but they gave no recovery percentage numbers. The $5,000 figure gives us a hint at how the recovery process went.
What I think that people don’t realize is that Auryn could make an absolute fortune, starting TODAY, if they wanted, if they simply DIRECT SHIPPED their ore to Enami without doing any froth flotation on-site. Yes, they would make a fortune, but they would leave an equal-sized fortune “on the table” if they did this. But, it is an OPTION that shareholders need to understand the ECONOMICS of. You need to understand the ECONOMICS of this worse-case scenario.
HOW MUCH OF A FORTUNE ARE WE TALKING ABOUT IF AURYN OPTED TO START “DIRECT SHIPPING” THEIR ORE TODAY?
Every “gram” of gold is now worth right at $70, for the first time in history. There are 31.1 grams in every Troy ounce of gold. With gold trading at $2,180 per ounce this means that it trades at about $70 per gram of gold. Auryn’s recent smelter test done at the Enami smelter came back with an average gold equivalent grade of 70 gpt gold equivalent. That 70-gram gold equivalent ore THAT HAD NOT BEEN FROTH-FLOATED, that Auryn recently shipped to the Enami smelter, is worth about $4,900 per tonne (70 gpt times $70 per gram) AFTER ENAMI TOOK OUT THEIR FEES. That’s a lot of money. The Enami smelter results were 57 gpt gold, 978 gpt silver and 3.21% copper. Note that the smelting process was able to capture those extremely high grades of both silver and copper, not to mention the gold.
If Auryn can match their guidance of producing 40 tonnes per day, which is a ridiculously small daily production rate by any metric, then this represents about $196,000 in nominal revenue on a daily basis. Based on a 300-day work year, this represents about $58.8 million per year in earnings AFTER ENAMI TOOK OUT THEIR RELATIVELY EXPENSIVE $200 PER TONNE SMELTING FEES. These numbers apply if Auryn DOES NOT build a froth flotation facility and DOES NOT access that $5,000 per tonne “bonus”. This becomes Auryn’s absolute “worse case scenario”, if the grades in future shipments simply match those of the “experimental batch” sent to Enami. That’s a pretty handsome “worse-case” scenario.
These numbers will approximately double if Auryn builds their own froth flotation facility and gains access to that $5,000 per tonne “bonus” over and above the $4,900 per tonne that Enami was willing to pay. This results in about $9,900 per tonne produced. This 40 tpd production figure pertains only to the 2 working faces located on level 3. When the levels below level 3 are accessed, each additional level should add a similar amount to earnings. From the intersection site of the DL2 Vein and the Antonino Adit, Auryn only has to go 20-meters on the SSE branch of level 3, to initiate the “decline spiral” which will access the lower sub levels. We have not had an update yet on whether the construction of the “decline spiral” has commenced or not. One would think that Auryn is heavily financially incentivized to access level 4, in order to double production rates and test the grades and widths of the DL2 Vein at this lower level. Up until now, BOTH the grades and widths of the DL2 Vein have improved with depth. Accessing the lower levels under level 3 represents both EXPLORATION and PRODUCTION. If the GRADES and WIDTHS at level 4 are vastly superior to those on level 3, then management would obviously concentrate their efforts on level 4.
TONNAGE PER DAY
Originally, management thought that they could produce at a rate of 40 tpd in the “old works” (levels 0,1 and 2) at just 1 working face. They later stated that in order to produce at 40 tpd, they’d have to wait until the DL2 Vein was intersected by the Antonino Adit and they could simultaneously mine 2 working faces. The vein was intersected on 1/3/24. Historically, during the drifting of the Larrissa and Antonino Adits, the Auryn miners averaged about 24 tonnes per day while working on just 1 working face. This lent some credibility to the 40 tpd guidance.
A recent update stated that they were producing at a “modest” rate, which doesn’t give us much help as far as tonnes per day. From a mining point of view, 20 tpd from each of 2 working faces being simultaneously mined (40 tpd in total) is a pathetically low rate of production, so I don’t know what to make out of a “modest” rate of production. I’m going to guess a production rate of perhaps 35 tpd would be fair for now before they go to level 4.
AVERAGE GRADE
After intersecting the DL2 Vein, management did 2 groups of samplings of the vein at the intersection site. The first group, consisting of 4 individual samples averaging 0.6-meters in width, averaged 164 gpt gold. The second group averaged “about 150 gpt gold”. The worldwide average grade being mined in similar “narrow vein” underground operations is 4.18 gpt gold.
Later they did 2 smelting tests. The “experimental batch” sent to Enami’s smelter came back at 57 gpt gold, 986 gpt silver and 3.21% copper. This averaged a “gold equivalent” grade of 70 gpt “gold equivalent” AFTER ENAMI TOOK OUT THEIR SMELTING FEES. The smelting test done at the Plenge Lab in Lima, Peru, however, came in at 128 gpt just for the gold. This told management that Enami’s smelting fees were a bit steep. Auryn had already done a group of samplings of the DL2 Vein in the “old works”. These averaged 85 gpt gold.
So, as far as the calculation of average grade based on DIRECT SHIPPING to Enami’s smelters without froth flotation, I’d plug in that 70 gpt “gold equivalent” figure for now “in pencil” while awaiting actual results. Keep in mind that the silver and copper grades, recovered by the smelting process, were pretty much off the charts. For the estimation based on after “froth flotation”, I’d say use the worldwide average concentrating effect of a FF circuit (4-times the original “head grade” of the ore) as well as that $5,000 per tonne “bonus” figure.
DURATION OF BEING IN “MINING AND STOCKPILING” MODE
We are currently at about Day 205 in this regard.
When you’re doing estimations like these, you’re obviously going to come up with a RANGE of values for the stockpiled ore.
SCENARIO #1-CALCULATING THE VALUE OF THE STOCKPILED ORE WITHOUT FACTORING IN FROTH FLOTATION
A production rate of 35 tpd times 205 days would give you 7,175 tonnes stockpiled to date. If this ore was “DIRECT SHIPPED” to Enami’s smelter starting TODAY, and if we assume that the results would equal the previous results of 70 gpt gold equivalent, then (70 gpt times 7,175 tonnes) or 502,250 grams of gold would be present on-site awaiting shipment. At today’s price of gold, each gram is worth about $70 for the first time in history. This would result in there being a nominal value of about $35.15 million worth of gold being present in stockpiles today, after 205 days of mining and stockpiling, again AFTER ENAMI’S SMELTING FEES WERE PAID.
If you want to annualize that 205 days of stockpiling to a 300 workday per work year basis, the result would be about $51.4 million worth of stockpiled ore under this “worse-case scenario” per year of mining and stockpiling.
SCENARIO #2-CALCULATING THE VALUE OF THE STOCKPILED ORE KNOWING THAT IT WAS ABOUT TO BE FROTH FLOATED ON-SITE
In this scenario, we already know that if Auryn does their own froth floating on site, they will realize an “extra” $5,000 per tonne over and above what they would have earned via DIRECT SHIPPING to Enami’s smelter i.e. about $4,900 per tonne. In this scenario, you’d need to approximately double that $35 million figure cited above while keeping in mind that your TONNAGE would be less because some of that original stockpile of ore will end up in the on-site “tailings pile” on top of the ADL plateau. STOCKPILED ORE THAT IS AWAITING ON-SITE FROTH FLOTATION, HAS A LOT MORE “VALUE” THAN THE UNFLOATED ORE THAT COULD BE SHIPPED TO ENAMI’S SMELTERS STARTING TODAY. That extra “VALUE” came from the ore’s amenability to being concentrated through methodologies that are a great deal less expensive than Enami’s smelters.
The Auryn and Medinah shareholders need to come to the realization that this “worse-case” scenario indicates that you guys have already secured a huge victory as of TODAY. Kevin made an interesting comment a while back that “once Auryn is producing from 8 to 12 working faces simultaneously (from 4 to 6 levels) shareholders will be amazed at what kind of production rates they will be achieving”. Dr. Helmut Mischo recently commented that: ” once the most efficient recovery method is established, production scaling would be straightforward and highly effective.”
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This all sounds great BB! If we have so much money in ore stockpiled why can’t we still land financing? Could it be a delay in permits? Maybe they need permits to build the plant before financing can go through. Hopefully this coming update will shed light or even better be announced that it’s all goooo.
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