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Canada

Courageous Lake Expansion Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePreliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Courageous Lake is one of Canada largest undeveloped projects by gold resources.

The Courageous Lake Project includes two deposits: the Courageous Lake deposit, and the Walsh Lake deposit.

The PEA is a standalone mine plan that has been undertaken to evaluate the conceptual expansion of the open pit below the base of the permafrost. The 2024 PEA assumes the 2024 PFS has been completely mined out prior to PEA mining activities.

The Mineral Resources used in the 2024 PEA mine plan are exclusive of the pits mined out in the 2024 PFS plan and the associated Mineral Reserves or Mineral Resources inside of those pits. The 2024 PEA mine plan includes Inferred Resources.
Related AssetCourageous Lake Project

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Seabridge Gold Inc. 100 % Indirect
Courageous Lake project is 100%-owned by Seabridge Gold Inc.

Seabridge assigned its right to its wholly owned subsidiary, Seabridge Gold (NWT) Inc.

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Epithermal

Summary:

The Courageous Lake Project includes two deposits: the Courageous Lake deposit, and the Walsh Lake deposit.

Deposit Types
Courageous Lake deposit
The Courageous Lake deposit is a stratiform series of near-vertical, elongate lenticular mineralized domains hosted in Archean tuffaceous clastic rocks and ash-flow tuff. Gold mineralization is interpreted to be a product of an episodic, epithermal-like, submarine and subaerial, hydrothermal system.

Walsh Lake Deposit
The Walsh Lake zone is contained in quartz vein and silicic alteration within and surrounding shears. Mineralized material mineralogy is dominated by arsenopyrite and free gold. This style of orogenic gold deposit is common in Archean greenstone belts.

Mineralization
Courageous Lake Deposit Mineralization
Since its discovery, several common points have been used to describe the felsic ash tuff (FAT) deposit, including:
• A series of gold zones concentrated in long and narrow bands.
• The deposit is hosted by metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks.
• Gold concentrations are associated with the introduction of silica, muscovite, and sulphide minerals.

The FAT deposit is located between the north shore of Matthews Lake and the south shore of Courageous Lake. It is made up of at least 13 discrete, steep east-dipping, elongate lenticular zones that vary in thickness from 20 to 125-m-wide. The continuity of these 13 zones has been demonstrated to be at least 1,900 m long, 800 m-wide and, although open at depth, at least 1200 m deep.

Walsh Lake Mineralization
The Walsh Lake target is 10 km south of the FAT deposit, adjacent and south of the historical Tundra Gold Mine that was abandoned in 1999. The north part of this target area is connected by a road network that links to the FAT deposit. Walsh Lake is interpreted to be a series of structural zones, parts of which are on strike with the deposits exploited in the Tundra Gold Mine.

The Walsh Lake target area stretches one and a half kilometer south from the former mine. This area has undergone several generations of exploration, including some limited past drilling campaigns showing these gold occurrences were located near a regional stratigraphic contact, which could provide significant strike potential. Gold-bearing quartz veins are hosted in sheared rocks near the contact between metamorphosed graywacke and mafic volcanic rocks. The metagraywacke units are fine to coarse sand size material with well preserved, laterally discontinuous, fining upward sequence of graded beds. This turbidite section is distinguished by the absence of volcanic and chemical sedimentary rocks intercalated in the Bouma beds. Metamorphosed mafic volcanic rocks are black to green-black, dense, fine grained, and typically show fragmental textures. These rocks are principally made up of fine hornblende and plagioclase laths, with localized irregular and fractured dark garnet crystals.

Drilling on the Walsh Lake contact zone consistently encounters silica alteration with gold-bearing intervals up to 20 m above the contact in siltstone and up to 60 m below the contact in mafic volcanic rocks interbedded with siltstone or felsic volcanic rocks. Gold is concentrated in arsenopyrite-bearing silica-altered sheared rocks containing abundant quartz veins, with true widths from one to 12 m. The shearing is almost parallel with bedding. This deformation event is associated with the tilting and regional metamorphism and focused along rheological changes in the stratigraphy.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

CommodityProductUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Gold Payable metal koz 2053,261
Gold Metal in doré koz 2063,267

Operational metrics

Metrics
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Total tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Tonnes processed, LOM  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2024 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
Total cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2024 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2024
OP mining costs ($/t mined) USD 3 *  
OP mining costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
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G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
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* According to 2024 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
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Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
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Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M USD 1,242
G&A costs $M USD 340
Total OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
EBITDA (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
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Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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AV - Autonomous

Personnel

Mine Management

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Aerial view:

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