Status of Cyanide Permits in Idaho
Currently, four facilities have cyanide permits in Idaho. Three are in some state of closure while the fourth, the New Jersey Mine near Kellogg, remains in operation.
A fifth proposed operation near Elk City (Idaho County) is in the project scoping phase by the Bureau of Land Management.. Reported on 1March2012 : . As it stands today, we recover approximately 15%-25% of the available precious metals in our ore. Therefore, there remains 75%-85% high grade ore within the 31,218 tons stockpiled, which is securely stored and ready for processing. The ore concentrate values estimate based on this tonnage is approximately 3,659 Oz. Gold and 16,550 Oz. Silver. Using commodity prices of $1,625.00 GOLD (Au) and $30.00 (Ag) silver, the estimate gross value of the concentrates pre-smelt are $5.5M GOLD AND $500,000 SILVER. My question is, would it be cost-affective to ship these high grade concentrate to an existing facility that already has an approved cyanide permit (if not Idaho-maybe Nevada)? I have not talked to RK about this and thought it might have some merit. If this approach works, there would be NO need for a cyanide permit (180+ days when submitted) and construction $$$. This would generate instant revenve for the company.
