The capital estimate excludes escalation and mine closure costs which have been included as part of the financial model. In addition to the initial capital costs, a Stage 2 expansion of the Heap Leach is estimated to cost $21.3 Million (including indirect costs and contingency).
The total Life of Mine (LOM) operating costs for the Project are shown in Table 3. Approximately 78% of the total operating costs are incurred in the mining and processing activities. With an initial mine life of 8.8 years, on-going maintenance activities will replace sustaining capex. No replacement or rebuilds are required during the initial project life.