Abcourt gains Sleeping Giant environmental certificate

Executive Summary

• Abcourt Mines Inc. has received its environmental certificate of authorization for custom milling of ore from off-site deposits at its Sleeping Giant mill.
• This authorization enables the company to begin commercial discussions with potential clients and process gold ore from other mining companies that lack their own milling facilities.
• The move allows Abcourt to utilize the significant excess capacity of its mill (which is permitted for 950 tonnes per day but planned for only 340 tonnes per day for internal use) to generate additional revenue.

Key Details

• Regulatory Approval: Received environmental certificate of authorization for custom milling at the Sleeping Giant mill.
• Operational Capacity:
  • Permitted daily throughput: 950 tonnes per day.
  • Average planned throughput for internal Sleeping Giant ore (per Preliminary Economic Assessment): 340 tonnes per day.
  • Current internal usage represents less than 40% of total capacity.
• Strategic Objective:
  • Short-term: Process ore from other sites to create additional revenue sources.
  • Long-term: Define additional mineral resources at Sleeping Giant to maximize internal mill usage.
• Market Context: Custom milling is presented as a faster and more cost-effective alternative for gold development companies, avoiding the several years and hundreds of millions of dollars required to build new processing complexes.
• Regional Focus: Targeting gold deposits in the Abitibi and Eeyou Istchee regions that are too small to justify independent processing infrastructure.

Notable Quotes

• "The Abitibi and Eeyou Istchee regions are rich in gold deposits that are too small to justify the initial investment of building a gold processing complex. Abcourt now offers an attractive alternative to accelerate the development of these deposits. In addition, this type of custom milling allows us to maximize the use of our mill, increase our revenue and the value of our asset, and finally allow us to evaluate the potential synergies with other deposits around us." — Pascal Hamelin, President and CEO