The PEA for the Candelones oxide deposit envisaged initial capex of US$36 million, average production of 31,000 ounces of gold a year, a post-tax NPV5 of $26 million, IRR of 34.9% and all-in sustaining costs of $744/oz.
"The economics are compelling enough that this is being considered as a stand-alone operation providing near term cash flow as the company continues to expand and evaluate the larger sulphide resource which the company believes offers a longer-term development opportunity," chairman and CEO Joseph Hamilton said.
The 2013 inferred sulphide resource, restated last year, has a pit-constrained circa 1.5 million ounces of gold and about 300,000oz underground.
"The company intends to transition directly into a feasibility study on the oxide project as soon as possible," Hamilton said.
The PEA was based on an August update to the Candelones oxide resource, which put the pit-constrained measured and indicated material at 3.43 million tonnes at 0.84g/t gold for 92,000 ounces and inferred at 1.61Mt grading 0.74g/t for 38,000oz, within the same pit.
Hamilton said drilling was planned to rapidly upgrade this to measured and indicated status for inclusion in the feasibility study.
He said the project had been designed as a small footprint, environmentally friendly operation to establish Unigold in the local area of the Dominican Republic.
"We are targeting the end of 2021 to have all materials and studies assembled to allow the government to proceed with permitting of this project," he said.
Unigold said the local community had expressed strong support for the project and the company had been "proactive in community engagement for the past 20 years".
It had resumed drilling at Neita in 2019 after a pause mainly due to the renewals process for the concession, which had begun in 2016.
The project also hosts copper targets and Unigold had released a 2015 resource estimate for the Candelones Extension deposit, comprising an inferred 894,000oz of gold and 41.2 million pounds of copper.
Eric Sprott holds 17% of the company.
It last raised about C$6 million at 18c per unit in June 2020 to advance Neita.
Unigold shares (TSXV: UGD) have ranged from C17.5-67c over the past year and closed down 4.8% yesterday to 29.5c, capitalising it at $37.5 million (US$30 million).
