Greenfield projects, United States

Overview and locality

AngloGold Ashanti completed its acquisition of Corvus on 18 January 2022, consolidating much of the largest new gold district in Nevada. This provides AngloGold Ashanti with the opportunity to establish, in the medium and longer term, a meaningful, low-cost, long-life production base in a premier mining jurisdiction.

The consolidation of the Beatty District has the potential for significant synergies including economies of scale and integrated infrastructure, such as water rights, adjacent concessions and processing facilities. The combined asset base will also allow for unified engagement with federal, state and local stakeholders to advance and achieve shared sustainability goals and other district benefits, such as opportunities to design projects incorporating renewable energy, as well as develop conservation and other local projects in conjunction with the Beatty community. Following the completion of the Corvus transaction, water rights that will form an important part of the district’s development have transferred to AngloGold Ashanti.

Our conceptual development plan for the district envisions the North Bullfrog deposit – previously owned by Corvus – being developed first, with initial production expected in the next three years. This is expected to be followed by AngloGold Ashanti’s Silicon deposit – which has declared a maiden 3.4Moz Mineral Resource – and then potentially the Merlin target near Silicon. The timing for mining activities at the Mother Lode deposit is expected to start only in the long term after additional study work has been completed.

This initial development schedule is expected to be supplemented by various other prospective deposits being explored across the tenement. It is expected that deposits will be developed in a modular fashion, mined initially as open pits and processed using heap leach and gravity recovery where applicable. This pathway provides the opportunity for project capital expenditure intensity to develop in a staged fashion.

The district is expected to yield more than 300,000oz annually over more than a decade at a Tier One cost structure. Sulphide processing and underground mining will be evaluated in the longer term.

AngloGold Ashanti’s technical team has initiated the process of evaluating the Corvus’ Mineral Resource. For 2022, multiple activities are planned. The requisite drilling is underway at North Bullfrog and Silicon, with the aim of converting the Mineral Resource to Ore Reserve. We also plan to begin a pre-feasibility study at Silicon and initiate a concept study for the Merlin deposit. The permitting process for North Bullfrog is expected to start in the first half of 2022. Importantly, given the various deposits across the tenement, our approach to mapping these deposits is expected to take place over several years in a staged and de-risked manner.