ELN June 5 2013



Ownership, Project Stage, Location, Metals

  • The Murray Brook Project is a large near-surface Copper-Lead-Zinc PEA stage Project located approximately 60 kilometres west of Bathurst, New Brunswick in the Bathurst Mining Camp
  • Murray Brook is road and power accessible and is within 10 kilometres of the producing Caribou Mine, owned by Trevali Mining Corp
  • ELN owns a 32.1%interest in the project
    • In October 2016, ELN announced that it was optioning its minority interest in the project by entering into an asset sale agreement with Puma Exploration in which ELN would relinquish its 32.1% interest in the project

ELN/Puma Agreement

  • In April 2019, ELN and Puma amended the terms of the asset sale agreement described above
  • As of April 1, 2019 ELN, had received $2.1M of the total $3.1 M owed as per the agreement and is expecting the final $1M payment on or before June 30, 2019.
  • If Puma does not satisfy the conditions set forth in the amended and restated asset purchase agreement, then ELN shall retain its 32.1% interest in the Murray Brook Project as well, it will receive the geological information, reports, metallurgical tests and the surface copper zone drill sampling which represent about $2.4M in exploration work completed on the Murray Brook Project since ELN entered into the original sale agreement with Puma.

Resources/ 2017 Mineral Resource Estimate Summary


An updated technical report and Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) was completed in 2016. The study evaluated the viability of an underground mining operation for the Project.
 


 


 

Based on the results of the 2016 MRE, it is recommended that the project be advanced to an underground Preliminary Economic Assessment study level.
Table 1: Results from the 2017 updated Mineral Resource Estimate by P&E Mining Consultants.

2013 PEA Summary

  • Murray Brook Project PEA effective June 4, 2013 by P&E Mining Consultants
  • The PEA evaluated the feasibility of a conceptual open pit mining operation. The results of the study show that Murray Brook has economic potential for producing copper, lead and zinc concentrates.
  • The study was based on the MRE below:


Table 2: Results from the 2013 updated Mineral Resource Estimate which was used in the 2013 PEA.


Unless otherwise noted, all amounts in this press release are expressed in Canadian currency. The PEA is prepared for 100% ownership of the project revenues and expenditures. As noted below, ELN holds a 32.1% interest in the project. The PEA includes Inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

 


Table 3: 2013 Murray Brook Project PEA financial results summary table.

*Total LOM Capital combines capital for pre-stripping, mine equipment, surface facility construction, environmental and sustaining costs


Metal prices used in the PEA are based on the April 30,2013 three-year trailing prices which are listed in Table 4 below. 2018 trailing average metal prices have been included in the table below for illustrative purposes.


Table 4:Metal prices used in the 2013 PEA.
2018 3-year trailing average prices have been included in this table.
 

Table 5 below comes from the 2013 PEA and shows a sensitivity analysis of the project to zinc price. It shows that the project performance is very sensitive to zinc prices.
 


Table 5: Sensitivity analysis of the project to zinc price from the 2013 PEA report by P&E.


The operation was designed as a 6,000 tpd 10-year life single open pit operation that would produce approximately 18.9 million tonnes of mill feed over the life of mine.
 

Financial Assumptions and Results


Table 6:Projection of total operating costs during the Life of Mine, Murray Brook Project
 

Capital costs are categorized as Initial Project Capital and Sustaining Capital. Initial Project Capital consists primarily of mining equipment, process plant and ancillary plant construction, initial tailing storage, facility construction, an allowance for water treatment, and local infrastructure. Sustaining capital consists of further additions to mining equipment during production and environmental and closure costs.



Table 7:Initial Project and Sustaining Capital of Murray Brook Project.
 

The PEA was prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. under the supervision of Eugene Puritch, P. Eng. of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. Mr. Puritch is an independent QP in accordance with NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.

Qualified Persons Statement

The PEA was prepared under the supervision of Eugene Puritch, P. Eng. of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. Mr. Puritch is an independent QP in accordance with NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. The information in this release was reviewed by Dr. William Stone, Executive Vice President of Exploration of ELN and a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101.

Murray Brook technical information and figures on this page were derived from the news releases titled "Positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for Murray Brook Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag Deposit, Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick filed on SEDAR" released on June 5, 2013. To access the news release click here.