Erdene Resources targets Bayan Khundii Project’s first gold production as early as 2021

Listed on both Toronto and Mongolian stock exchanges, Erdene Resource Development Corporation provided updates on Bayan Khundii Gold Project and Q1 financial statement on Tuesday.

“We continue to make significant progress on our Bayan Khundii Gold Project bankable feasibility study (BFS) and environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), with delivery expected in mid2020," said Peter Akerley, the mining company’s president and CEO. “These studies were built upon the recent prefeasibility study, based on a reserve of over 400,000 ounces at an average head grade of 3.7 g/t gold, which outlined a highreturn, lowcapital cost, openpit development.”

Erdene Resource aims to define a “relatively simple and lowcapital” cost operation, producing an average of 60,000 ounces per year and make the project shovel ready by the end of 2020. Permitting and development readiness activities are ongoing in advance of financing and construction decisions, targeting first gold production as early as 2021.

“The Bayan Khundii development is the platform for growth from which we will seek to continue our exploration success and gold resource growth in the very prospective Khundii Gold district,” concluded Akerley. “To that end, we recently completed modelling and interpretation work for our newly discovered Dark Horse gold prospect and Altan Nar project, identifying multiple high priority drill targets that have the potential to add significant resources.”

The mining company recorded a net loss of 1.04 million USD in Q1 2020, compared to a net loss of 516,687 USD in Q1 2019. This includes exploration and evaluation expenditures, which exceeded capitalized costs by over 570,000 USD amounting to 1.51 million USD in the reference period. This is said to be due to increased technical consultant costs associated with the Bayan Khundii feasibility study and lower exploration activity.

Erdene Resource reminded that it received the Altan Nar mining license on March 5, which will be valid for an initial term of 30 years and can be extended to 70 years, providing longterm tenure over the land package underpinning the Khundii Gold District. It also obtained several key permits and regulatory approvals required for construction, including Bayan Khundii Statutory Technical and Economic Assessment and land arrangement plan, which grants access to 100 hectares of land required to construct Bayan Khundii openpit.

Erdene Resource says it’s largely on tract for the delivery of Bayan Khundii BFS although the full impact of the ongoing pandemic remains unpredictable.

The company’s share prices were unchanged at 0.23 CAD as of May 20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and its market capitalization reached 44.1 million USD.