YUKON – Vancouver's Western Copper and Gold Corp. and the Selkirk First Nation have signed an initial project assessment co-operation covering the Casino gold-copper-silver-molybdenum project that lies mostly within traditional Selkirk territory.
The agreement commits the parties to review, evaluate and discuss the Casino project 300 km northwest of Whitehorse. The deal provides for the establishment of a technical working group and lays the foundation for establishing future agreements and protocols relating to the project.
Western Copper says the Casino deposit is one of the world's largest potential open pit gold-copper mines. It contains 976 million tonnes grading 0.20% Cu, 0.24 g/t Au, 0.023% Mo and 1.73 g/t Ag (0.50% CuEq) in the proven and probable reserves that could be milled. This portion contains 4.3 billion lb of copper, 7.4 million oz of gold, 483 million lb of molybdenum, and 53.8 million oz of silver.
The deposit also has proven and probable resources amenable to heap leaching. This portion totals 82 million tonnes grading 0.04% Cu, 0.32 g/t Au and 2.42 g/t Ag or 100 million lb of copper, 1.5 million oz of gold and 11.2 million oz of silver.
The Casino project proposal has been submitted to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board. If permitting moves forward as hoped, leaching could begin in 2015 and milling in 2016.
Additional details are available at WesternCopperAndGold.com.
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