Seabridge on Track to One of the World’s Largest Gold Mines

Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA, NYSE: SA) has received a key license from the Canadian Government and is on it’s way to developing one of the world’s largest gold mines.

The federal Government gave Seabridge approval Monday for a 25-year license on the company’s water management control system. This license is a key step for the KSM  project located in northwestern BC. It follows the company’s Enviromental Impact Statement, which was approved by the Canadian government in 2014 after a seven-year evaluation.

Chairman and CEO of Seabridge, Rudi Fronk, had this to say, “this important permit highlights the Government of Canada’s continued support for the environmental standards incorporated into our design of the KSM project.”

The water facilities for this project will be located at Mitchell and Sulphurets creeks, tributaries of the Unuk River system that flows into Alaska, according to an earlier press release.

The project is nowhere near commercial production and development, but the license was a major regulatory obstacle that has now been overcome.

The initial capital cost for the KSM project is estimated at $5.5 billion with a sustaining capital over the 51-year lifespan of the mine of $10 billion.

The company’s PFS puts estimated Proven and probable reserves for the mine around 38.8 million ounces of gold, 183 million ounces of silver, and 10.2 billion pounds of copper. An operating cost of around $673 per ounce is expected under the best-case scenario estimated by Seabridge.

KMS will be expected to average greater than 1 million ounces in the first seven years, over half a million average in its life-time. This scale of expected production is similar to Goldcorp’s Carlin mine in Nevada, which in 2015 produced 27.6 tonnes of gold. Carlin was the seventh biggest mine in the world.