Batero Gold Announces Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Batero-Quinchia Gold Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2013) - Batero Gold Corp. (Batero, or the Company) (TSX VENTURE:BAT) reports the results of an updated Mineral Resource estimate and a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) at its 100% owned Batero-Quinchia project (the Project) in Riseralda, Colombia. The updated Mineral Resource estimate and PEA were prepared by RPA Inc. (RPA) and include drill hole data available as of October 2012, and metallurgical testwork data available as of March 2013. A National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) technical report summarizing the PEA (the "Technical Report") is being completed by RPA, and will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this news release. The Technical Report will also be available on the Batero website.

PEA Highlights

The PEA evaluates the economics of an open pit contract mining and heap leach processing scenario that takes advantage of the relatively high gold recoveries and fast leach kinetics of the surface oxide mineralization within the Batero-Quinchia deposit. Higher grade, near surface mixed and primary mineralization within the oxide pit footprint are also mined.

Highlights from the PEA, with a base case gold price of US$1,400/oz are as follows (all figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated):

  • Mine life of seven years at 3.5 million tonnes per annum production steady state (10,000 tonnes per day).

  • Life-of-Mine (LoM) gold production of 390,000 ounces of gold and 817,000 ounces of silver recovered.

  • Annual average production of 56,000 ounces of gold and 117,000 ounces of silver recovered.

  • Total open pit production which has been factored for mining extraction and mining dilution:

    • 9.4 Mt of Measured Mineral Resources at 0.81 g/t Au and 1.8 g/t Ag for 244,000 ounces of contained gold and 545,000 ounces of contained silver,

    • 11.0 Mt of Indicated Mineral Resources at 0.77 g/t Au and 2.0 g/t Ag for 273,000 ounces of contained gold and 720,000 ounces of contained silver,

    • 3.3 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resources at 0.59 g/t Au and 1.6 g/t Ag for 64,000 ounces of contained gold and 171,000 ounces of contained silver.

  • Approximately 86% of open pit production tonnage is classified as Measured or Indicated Mineral Resources.

  • Mining strip ratio of 0.3:1 (waste:production).

  • LoM average gold and silver heap leach recoveries of 67% and 57% respectively.

  • Initial capital cost of $97.3 million, which includes $16.2 million in contingency costs.

  • Pre-tax payback of 23 months.

  • Net pre-tax cashflow of $105.0 million.

  • Pre-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 27%.

  • Pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate of $69.1 million.

  • Total cash operating cost (net of silver credits) of $842 per ounce gold.

  • After-tax payback of 30 months.

  • Net after-tax cashflow of $76.9 million.

  • After-tax IRR of 21%.

  • After-tax NPV at a 5% discount rate of $47.3 million.