Contango ORE Receives $36M of Gold, Silver from First Manh Choh Ore
Photo Courtesy Kinross Gold Contango ORE CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse hefts the first 600-ounce gold bar poured from Manh Choh ore above his head.
By Mining News Since the July 8 pouring of the first bar of gold, the Kinross Alaska mill recovered approximately 55,000 ounces of gold and 11,000 ounces of silver from ore shipped from Manh Choh, a mine being operated under the Peak joint venture between Kinross Gold Corp. (70 percent) and Contango ORE Inc. (30 percent). For Contango, this marks the first revenue generated under its “hybrid royalty” model, a unique strategy to directly ship ore from high-quality gold, silver, and copper deposits to existing mills for processing.
This unique business model lowers the capital costs, environmental footprint, and permitting risks associated with developing mines at deposits that are much higher grade than the industry average but may not have the size to support their own mill. The Kinross Alaska mill at Fort Knox has been modified to recover gold from the higher-grade ore delivered from Manh Choh. The high-grade ore from Manh Choh is trucked roughly 250 miles to the mill at Kinross’ Fort Knox Mine north of Fairbanks, Alaska, where it is processed in batches. The first batch of Manh Choh ore, which was processed
4
September 2024 I The Alaska Miner I www.alaskaminers.org
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease