The company has sent out tenders for contract work on the mine, which was put on care and maintenance in 2018 when gold prices were at multi-year lows (US$1,250 per ounce oz), and plans to now test equipment in the mill.
The deepening project will start by late spring, to be followed by stope development and ore extraction in the latter part of the year. It is targeting annual gold production in the range of 8,000-9,000oz next spring, once the operation is in steady production.
Endomines carried out a rights issue in January to enable the funding of the development of Pampalo, another Finnish project and its mine in Idaho, the US.
When the mine was placed on care and maintenance, Endomines calculated that by extending the decline some 100 metres and developing deeper ore zones, the start-up of the mine production will be feasible at gold prices at/or above US$1,500/oz.
