Beadell on track to commission process plant at Tucano by mid-2012

Australian firm Beadell Resources (ASX: BDR) is on track to commission a 3.5Mt/y carbon in leach (CIL) plant by the middle of next year at its Tucano gold project in Brazil's northern Amapá state, the company said in a statement. The plant is due to start commissioning in 2Q12 with first ore to the mill scheduled by June 30, 2012. Tucano is currently expected to be completed within the budget of US$99.4mn. Project value is 80% committed and 98% of the procurement is undertaken, according to the statement. Mining operations at Tucano began in June and the existing fleet obtained material movement of 1.25Mt in November. Beadell is anticipating production of up to 180,000oz/y in the early years of the operation, managing director Peter Bowler said. In August, Beadell appointed compatriot Macquarie and Germany's WestLB as joint lead arrangers for facilities totaling US$80mn to fund Tucano. The facility includes gold hedging totaling 135,000oz at a minimum average price of US$1,500/oz or down to 115,000oz if a minimum price of US$1,600/oz is achieved. The definitive feasibility study for Tucano estimated average annual output of 150,000oz at a cash cost of US$557/oz over a 7.6-year mine life. At a base case gold price of US$1,400/oz, the project has a pre-tax NPV of US$490mn at a 5% discount rate and a pre-tax IRR of 79%. Tucano currently has a JORC-compliant resource base of 90.4Mt grading 1.47g/t containing 4.29Moz.