MANILA – TVI Pacific Inc. has announced that its Philippine affiliate, TVI Resource Development (Phils.), Inc., has received the Environmental Compliance Certificate for the proposed Balabag Gold-Silver Project to be located at Sitio Balabag in the village of Depore in Zamboanga del Sur’s Bayog town.
Receipt of the ECC confirms the Company has satisfied the requirements of Presidential Decree 1586, and its issue comes upon recommendation of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
This marks a critical milestone towards starting development of the Balabag Gold-Silver Project, which will commence once approval is received 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).
Based on results of drilling completed to the end of June 2011 and as included in the Balabag NI 43-101 technical report dated June 23, 2012, the current indicated mineral resource is estimated to be 1.78 million tonnes averaging 2.34 grams per tonne of gold and 72.3 grams per tonne of silver, containing 134,262 ounces of gold and 4,148,196 ounces of silver.
The resource is currently 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 has been continuing, as previously announced by the Company on June 26, 2013, to confirm the results obtained in previous laboratory leaching test, optimize the metallurgical processing under an environment that more closely resembles actual operations, provide design parameters for engineering, and to train personnel in operations and metallurgical process control.
Lower grade ore containing 2.7 g/t Au and 98 g/t Ag, which more closely represents the initial mining schedule, was fed into the pilot plant. The results confirm high extraction rates of 94% Au and 92% Ag after 36 hours in CIL.
The Company has announced earlier also that a nonbinding 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.
The purpose of the Facility is to support the development of the proposed Balabag Mine by providing additional working capital funding for construction and commissioning activities and to support mining and processing activities.
TVIRD continues to progress with success the critical elements to advance the development of the Balabag project which the Company has previously reported to include:
a. The removal of all remaining illegal miners from the property in October 2012 through enforcement of the Cease and Desist Order issued by the DENR and the inter-agency efforts of the Provincial Government, MGB, EMB, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the clean-up of mine waste and tailings left behind by the illegal miners.
b. Completion of an all-weather 16-km access road to the mine as part of the pre-development work. This road will serve as the main access for equipment and product transport.
c. On-going design work on the revision of the leach circuit from CIP-Merrill-Crowe to CIL based on the favorable test results. Completion of plant design and equipment sizing. This was part of an update of the internal feasibility study that was previously submitted to the MGB.
d. Confirmation of community and Local Government Units’ acceptance and support through the continuing establishment of Community Relations and Development Programs.
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