MINING NEWS: Costs rise again at Pogo gold mine - September 24, 2006

Providing coverage of Alaska and Northwest Canada's mineral industrySeptember 2006

Vol. 11, No. 39

Week of September 24, 2006

MINING NEWS: Costs rise again at Pogo gold mine

Construction costs for Alaska’s Pogo gold mine near Fairbanks have risen again to $378 million, Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining said in a release Aug. 23. Sumitomo owns a 51 percent stake in Pogo and the operator is Vancouver-based Teck Cominco.

The original construction cost estimate in May 2004 was $280 million. The latest estimate in October 2005 was $357 million.

Some of the increases were due to rising material prices, including oil and steel. Additional investment of $21 million is now required to install a third filter for the tailings and to modify the handling system for transported filtered tailings.

Pogo began production in February and is expected to produce about 12 tons of gold per year when it reaches full capacity. The life of the mine will be about 10 years.

Sumitomo Metal is Japan’s top gold producer and Pogo is the first overseas mine in which Sumitomo has a majority ownership interest.

—Sarah Hurst

Mining News North - Phone: 1-907 522-9469
[email protected] --- https://www.miningnewsnorth.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (North of 60 Mining News)(Petroleum News Bakken)(Petroleum News)(PNA)Š2013 All rights reserved. The content of this article and website may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.