In December 2018, Taseko announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Yellowhead Mining Inc. that it did not already own for $15.1 million, payable in Taseko common shares.
Based on the 2014 Feasibility Study(1), copper production will average approximately 165 million pounds for the first three years after start up, plus significant gold and silver by-products.
The metallurgical work performed to-date has confirmed that the overall soft ore of the deposit will result in power usage in the lower quartile of similar sized mines. Combined with an extremely low strip ratio of 0.76:1 and short waste hauls, the mine will benefit from low C1 costs, especially in the first three years with production costs under US$1.20 per pound of copper(1)
The Yellowhead 2014 Feasibility Study(1) proposed a 70,000 tonne per day concentrator with total pre-production capital costs of roughly C$1 billion and an average operating cost of US$1.46 per pound of copper. Using US$3.00 per pound copper, a foreign exchange rate of C$/US$ 0.90, and an 8% discount rate results in a pre-tax net present value of approximately US$700 million.
The Feasibility Study, completed in 2014 by Yellowhead Mining can be found below:
Note: The content of webpage was reviewed by Richard Weymark P.Eng., Chief Engineer, and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
