Contango ORE (NYSE American: CTGO) said on Tuesday that the Manh Choh mine in Alaska will pour its first gold on July 8 at the Fort Knox mill facility. The project is held under a joint venture, with Kinross Gold (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) owning 70% and Contango holding the remaining 30%.
Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, CEO for Contango, commented: “This is indeed a grand milestone event for the company and its shareholders. Since its discovery, the Manh Choh project has stood out as a very high-quality deposit with exceptional grade for an open pit gold mine.”
In September 2020, Contango and Kinross formed the Peak Gold joint venture aimed at developing the namesake deposit (later renamed Manh Choh) located on top of a group of low hills in the northern part of the Tetlin lease.
The JV — led by Kinross as operator — subsequently completed the work leading to a feasibility study in 2022, followed by its successful permitting for the project and construction of the mine.
Mining operations commenced in August of 2023 and ore hauling started in November 2023, leading to a sizeable stockpile of ore at Kinross’ Fort Knox facilities ready to be processed through the mill.
As outlined on the JV’s website, the two small open pits comprising Manh Choh are estimated to be mined concurrently for about 4 to 5 years, producing about 225,000 ounces of gold a year.
Based on over 55,000 metres of drilling to date, the deposit currently has a defined resource of 9.2 million tonnes in the measured and indicated category averaging 4.1 g/t gold and 14 g/t silver, for 1.2 million oz. of contained gold and 4.2 million oz. contained silver.
