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A credible gold-mine construction decision comes from tracing the project from geological resource to mineable reserve, then testing whether the engineering, permits, funding, schedule and cash-flow model still work under adverse conditions. A feasibility study can be technically complete and compliant with a reporting code yet describe a project with weak economics or unacceptable execution risk. Use the framework below to distinguish disclosure quality from a genuinely buildable mine.
Start by identifying exactly what the study proves
Record the report title, study type, effective date, property and jurisdiction, ownership, selected development option and the qualified professionals responsible for the work. A technical report describes material facts as of its effective date. Metal prices, exchange rates, permits, engineering, contractor quotes, financing and community agreements can change afterward, so a dated report is not a guarantee that the same case remains valid when you make a decision.
Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mining-property rules are useful reference frameworks, not substitutes for the law governing the property. Confirm which code, securities regulator, environmental regime, water law, land-tenure system and permitting process apply to the mine.
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| Study stage | What it is intended to do | How to use it in a construction decision |
|---|---|---|
| Initial assessment or preliminary economic assessment | Explores a conceptual development and may use a broad range of assumptions. It is not a reserve-conversion or construction basis. | Use it to identify options and risks, not to authorize construction or treat the economics as demonstrated. |
| Pre-feasibility study | Tests project viability with more defined mining, processing and infrastructure choices, but with less detail and confidence than a feasibility study. | Use it to select a preferred option and define the work still required before financing or a build decision. |
| Feasibility study | Provides a more comprehensive technical and financial analysis, with designs and estimates intended to support an investment decision or project financing. | Audit every assumption; the label “bankable” does not remove the need to verify reserves, permits, funding and execution readiness. |
SEC definitions describe a pre-feasibility study as a comprehensive viability study that has established an underground mining method or open-pit configuration, determined an effective processing method and included financial analysis based on reasonable technical, engineering, legal, operating, economic, social and environmental assumptions. A feasibility study has greater confidence and detail. Neither label creates a universal minimum net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), gold price, cost accuracy or construction hurdle.
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Follow the resource-to-reserve chain
The mine plan should be traceable from drilling and geological interpretation through mineral resources, modifying factors and mineral reserves. A reserve is the economically mineable portion of measured or indicated resources after applying mining, processing, metallurgical, infrastructure, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, community and governmental considerations. It is not the entire drilled inventory.
Check resource categories and conversion
- Confirm the tonnes, grade and contained gold reported for measured, indicated and inferred resources, and the effective date of each estimate.
- Verify that the reserve statement uses only the resource categories permitted by the applicable code. Inferred resources are not reserves and should not be used as proof that the scheduled mine can be built or financed.
- Reconcile the resource model with the reserve table: explain changes caused by cut-off grade, pit shells or underground shapes, dilution, mining recovery, geotechnical exclusions, royalties, metallurgical recovery and economic assumptions.
- Identify the proportion of planned production supported by proved and probable reserves versus material outside the reserve base. Upside can be valuable, but it should not be presented as secured production.
Test the modifying factors
Read the assumptions behind the reserve rather than relying on a headline grade or mine life. Ask what evidence supports the following:
- Mining: pit limits or underground layouts, bench and stope dimensions, dilution, ore loss, slope angles, ground support, development metres, stripping and fleet productivity.
- Geotechnical and hydrological conditions: slope stability, rock-mass data, groundwater, dewatering rates, flood design and seasonal access.
- Metallurgy and processing: recovery by ore type, deleterious elements, variability, concentrate or doré specifications and treatment of low-grade or refractory material.
- Infrastructure: roads, power, water, tailings, waste facilities, pipelines, camps, communications and external services.
- Economics and marketing: gold-price basis, payability, refining or treatment charges, royalties, taxes, exchange rates, inflation and sales contracts.
- Legal, environmental and social factors: land rights, permits, consultation, community agreements, reclamation obligations and closure liabilities.
Ask which assumptions could materially reduce the reserve if they worsen. A reserve is a conditional economic judgment, not a physical guarantee of ounces.
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The selected mine method must match the deposit geometry, rock conditions, depth, water and planned production rate. For an open pit, inspect the pit optimization inputs, slope sectors, ramp widths, haul distances, pushbacks, stripping sequence, waste dumps and stockpiles. For underground mining, inspect access, ventilation, ground support, stope sequencing, paste or backfill, development rates, ore handling and escape infrastructure.
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Reconcile the schedule
- Start with annual or monthly ore tonnes, grade, recovery and payable gold. Check that the schedule mathematically reconciles to the reserve statement.
- Identify the source of early-grade ore and the timing of pre-stripping, underground development, plant commissioning and stockpile drawdown.
- Compare planned equipment hours, availability, utilization, payloads, advance rates and shift patterns with the physical work required.
- Check whether the schedule assumes simultaneous activities that compete for the same fleet, access, water-management capacity or workforce.
- Review ramp-up and commissioning assumptions separately from steady-state production. A plant reaching nameplate capacity immediately is a risk signal unless supported by operating evidence.
Look for dilution and ore-loss assumptions by mining area rather than one mine-wide percentage. Examine whether weather, blasting restrictions, ventilation, maintenance shutdowns, geotechnical controls and tailings capacity constrain the stated throughput. A schedule that works only at perfect availability is not a robust feasibility case.
Test metallurgy, process design, water and energy
Read the process flow sheet alongside the testwork. Headline recovery is meaningful only when the samples represent the ore types, grades, alteration, hardness, sulphide content and deleterious elements expected over the mine life.
Questions for metallurgical evidence
- Were samples representative of the reserve, including low-grade, transitional, oxidized, fresh and high-impurity zones?
- Were variability, locked-cycle, pilot-scale or continuous tests performed where the process requires them?
- Do laboratory recoveries include expected plant losses, residence time, water chemistry, reagent consumption and concentrate or doré treatment constraints?
- How will recovery change as the mine moves from early ore to later ore types?
- Are there penalties, blending limits or treatment bottlenecks for arsenic, mercury, copper, carbonaceous material or other constituents?
Verify the equipment basis, design throughput, availability, maintenance philosophy, spare parts, control systems and commissioning sequence. Compare energy demand with the available power supply and test the consequences of outages or fuel-price changes. Water balances should cover process make-up, recycling, groundwater inflow, rainfall, evaporation, storm events, treatment, discharge and closure conditions. Tailings and waste facilities need capacity, foundation, seepage-control and emergency-management evidence, not just a storage-volume number.
Rebuild the economic model instead of accepting one NPV
Obtain the mine schedule, production and recovery assumptions, price deck, capital estimate, operating-cost model, tax and royalty calculations, financing terms and closure cash flows. Recalculate enough of the model to trace tonnes and grade into payable gold, revenue, costs and free cash flow.
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Check revenue assumptions
- Record the gold price, currency, escalation convention and date used in the study. Treat it as a planning assumption, not a current market forecast.
- Reconcile contained gold, metallurgical recovery, payable metal, refining or treatment charges, transport and settlement timing.
- Check whether by-product credits, hedging, streaming, royalties or offtake terms alter the amount actually received.
- Separate pre-tax from after-tax results and identify tax losses, depreciation, government participation and withholding assumptions.
Check capital and operating costs
| Cost area | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Initial capital | Mining fleet, process plant, tailings and waste facilities, water systems, power, roads, camp, engineering, procurement, construction management, owner’s costs and contingency. |
| Sustaining capital | Mobile-equipment replacement, underground development, raises, tailings expansions, waste-storage lifts, plant refurbishment and closure-related works. |
| Operating cost | Mining, processing, labour, power, fuel, reagents, maintenance, water treatment, logistics, assaying, general and administration. |
| Other cash flows | Taxes, royalties, financing fees, working capital, reclamation security, closure and post-closure monitoring. |
For each major estimate, record its basis and date: supplier quotation, recent project benchmark, first-principles estimate, contractor proposal or allowance. Check escalation, exchange rates, contingency percentage and the items excluded from contingency. A low contingency can make an attractive NPV depend on unrealistic cost certainty.
Run decision-useful sensitivities
At minimum, test lower gold prices and recoveries, higher initial and sustaining capital, higher operating costs, schedule delay, slower ramp-up, higher financing costs and permitting delay. Use combined downside cases, not only one-variable sensitivities. Rank the assumptions by their effect on after-tax NPV, IRR, payback, peak funding requirement and reserve life.
The governing disclosure rules require the economic-analysis assumptions and cost-estimate bases to be explained; they do not prescribe a universal discount rate or a minimum IRR. A project can show a positive NPV at the study price and still fail a lender’s downside case or an owner’s risk-adjusted return requirement.
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Build a permit register with the application date, decision authority, current status, conditions, expiry, dependencies and schedule-critical path. Separate permits already granted from applications, anticipated approvals and matters still subject to consultation or appeal.
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Environmental and water checks
- Review the environmental-impact assessment, baseline data, impact predictions, mitigation commitments and monitoring plans.
- Confirm water-taking, discharge, treatment, diversion and groundwater permits, including seasonal or quality limits.
- Test tailings and waste-rock designs for seepage, acid-generating or metal-leaching potential, extreme rainfall, seismic loading and closure performance.
- Identify reclamation security, bonding or financial-assurance requirements and the timing of cash postings.
- Include closure demolition, earthworks, water treatment, revegetation, monitoring and post-closure care in the economic model.
Land, community and legal rights
Verify mineral tenure, surface rights, easements, access, indigenous or local-community consultation, benefit agreements and unresolved claims. A signed agreement, a negotiation in progress and a consultation commitment are different levels of readiness. Conditions attached to an approval can change the mine layout, schedule or cost; model them explicitly.
Test whether the project can actually be delivered
Construction readiness is a separate question from technical feasibility. Examine the execution plan, engineering maturity, procurement strategy and financing evidence.
Delivery checklist
- Financing: distinguish cash on hand, committed debt, equity intentions, indicative term sheets, streaming or offtake proposals and fully documented funding.
- Engineering: identify completed basic and detailed engineering, unresolved design interfaces, constructability reviews and long-lead equipment.
- Schedule: trace critical-path activities from final permits and financing through procurement, construction, commissioning and ramp-up; include weather and logistics float.
- Procurement: verify the status and validity of quotations, vendor capacity, delivery dates, escalation clauses and import or customs constraints.
- Infrastructure: confirm the legal and physical availability of power, roads, rail, ports, water, telecommunications and camps rather than assuming third-party projects will arrive on time.
- Workforce and contractors: assess labour availability, accommodation, training, contractor capacity, health and safety systems and industrial-relations exposure.
- Commissioning: check the ramp-up curve, commissioning ore, operator training, spare parts, laboratory capacity and procedures for unstable or off-specification operation.
Require evidence for every schedule-critical dependency. If the feasibility model assumes a transmission line, road upgrade, water allocation or financing close that is not contractually secured, show the project outcome if it is late or unavailable.
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When the study presents alternatives, compare them using identical price, exchange-rate, tax, discount-rate and contingency conventions. Do not select the option with the highest undiscounted ounces or lowest unit cost without considering risk and capital timing.
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| Comparison axis | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Reserve and resource support | Which option relies on proved and probable reserves, and which depends on inferred or unconverted material? |
| Mine method and schedule | Which method has credible geotechnical, productivity and ramp-up assumptions? |
| Recovery and process route | Which option has representative testwork and less exposure to ore variability or deleterious elements? |
| Capital and operating exposure | Which costs are quoted, which are allowances, and how does each option perform under overruns? |
| Infrastructure and water | Which option requires new power, roads, water treatment or tailings capacity, and who controls those dependencies? |
| Permitting and community | Which option has fewer approvals, land conflicts or consultation conditions? |
| Financing and marketability | Can the funding requirement and product meet lender, investor and buyer requirements? |
| Closure liabilities | Which option leaves the lower reclamation, water-treatment and post-closure burden? |
| Downside resilience | Which case remains viable under lower prices, lower recovery, higher costs and delay? |
Use a staged construction decision
A binary “build or reject” vote is not always appropriate. Define conditions precedent and the evidence required to clear each one.
- Accept the study as a decision base: confirm the correct study stage, effective date, qualified-person sign-off and applicable reporting rules.
- Close technical gaps: complete representative metallurgical, geotechnical, hydrological or engineering work where an unresolved issue can alter reserves, costs or schedule.
- Secure legal and environmental rights: obtain critical permits, land access, water rights, community agreements and reclamation security.
- Lock the delivery plan: mature engineering, validate long-lead procurement, contract critical infrastructure and update the schedule with realistic contingency.
- Commit funding: match the capital requirement, working capital, contingency and downside liquidity need with enforceable financing.
- Authorize construction with controls: set approval gates, cost and schedule thresholds, change-control rules, independent technical review and reporting requirements.
If a decisive assumption remains unverified, the defensible conclusion is a targeted work program or staged decision, not a claim that the project is construction-ready.
Common traps that produce bad mine decisions
- Treating “bankable” as a guarantee: the word does not replace review of reserves, cost bases, permits, financing or downside cases.
- Counting resources as production: inferred resources cannot be treated as reserves or guaranteed feed.
- Using laboratory recovery as plant performance: variability, scale-up, water chemistry and downtime can reduce actual recovery.
- Ignoring the effective date: a once-valid price deck, permit status or contractor quote may be obsolete.
- Focusing on NPV alone: NPV can conceal peak funding, schedule concentration, closure liabilities and sensitivity to one assumption.
- Underfunding closure: reclamation and water treatment are real cash requirements, not an accounting footnote.
- Assuming third-party infrastructure: a road, power line or port is not available until rights, funding, construction and operating responsibility are documented.
- Confusing compliance with merit: a complete technical report can faithfully describe a project that is uneconomic, unpermitted or too risky to finance.
Regulatory wording worth keeping in context
British Columbia’s NI 43-101 text defines a preliminary feasibility study as follows:
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“preliminary feasibility study” and pre-feasibility study each mean a comprehensive study of the viability of a mineral project that has advanced to a stage where the mining method, in the case of underground mining, or the pit configuration, in the case of an open pit, has been established and an effective method of mineral processing has been determined, and includes a financial analysis based on reasonable assumptions of technical, engineering, legal, operating, economic, social, and environmental factors and the evaluation of other relevant factors which are sufficient for a qualified person, acting reasonably, to determine if all or part of the mineral resource may be classified as a mineral reserve.
This wording explains why study stage matters, but it does not make a project economic or remove jurisdiction-specific requirements. Use the full technical-report disclosure list as a completeness check: reserves and methods, mining, geotechnical and hydrological parameters, recovery and testwork, infrastructure, market studies and contracts, environmental and permitting matters, community plans, closure, capital and operating estimates, and economic analysis.
Decision worksheet
Before approving construction, write a one-page answer to each question below and attach the supporting document, date and responsible reviewer.
- What exactly is the selected mine, process and infrastructure option?
- What reserve tonnes, grade, recovery and payable gold support the schedule?
- Which assumptions would reduce the reserve or production most if they changed?
- What evidence supports the mining method, geotechnical design and water balance?
- Does metallurgical testwork represent every important ore type and variability?
- What are the initial, sustaining, operating, financing and closure costs, and how were they estimated?
- What happens to after-tax cash flow, NPV, IRR and funding needs in combined downside cases?
- Which permits, land rights, community agreements and infrastructure links are still unresolved?
- What financing is committed, and what conditions could prevent the close?
- What evidence would change the construction decision, and who has authority to stop or re-stage the project?
The result should be a conditional decision with named evidence and owners, not an unsupported statement that a feasibility study “proves” the mine should be built.
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