TVI Pacific’s Philippine affiliate, TVI Resource Development (Phils) (TVIRD), has received an environmental compliance certificate for the Balabag Gold-Silver Project at Sitio Balabag in Zamboanga del Sur.
Receipt of the certificate confirms the company has satisfied requirements of Presidential Decree 1586, and its issue comes upon recommendation of the Environmental Management Bureau. This marks a milestone towards starting development of the Balabag project, to commence pending approval of the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility (DMPF) by the Philippines Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The current indicated mineral resource is estimated to be 1.78 million tonnes averaging 2.34 grams/tonne of gold and 72.3 grams/tonne of silver, containing 134,262 gold ounces and 4,148,196 silver ounces. The resource is being updated following a reconnaissance geological survey, soil grid sampling and underground sampling from the mining area once occupied by illegal miners. This is expected to improve the accuracy of the resource model.
Pilot plant test work continues to confirm results obtained in previous laboratory leaching tests, optimize the metallurgical processing under an environment more closely resembling actual operations, provide design parameters for engineering, and to train personnel in operations and metallurgical process control. Lower grade ore containing 2.7 grams/tonne gold and 98 grams/tonne silver, which more closely represents the initial mining schedule, was fed into the pilot plant. The results confirm high extraction rates of 94% gold and 92% silver after 36 hours in CIL.
The company announced earlier also that a non-binding term sheet was signed with Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company to provide financing in the form of a US$20 million term loan facility and a US$3 million Letter of Credit (LoC). The facility will support the development of the proposed Balabag mine by providing additional working capital for construction and commissioning activities and to support mining and processing activities.
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