Belo Sun Mining stock soars on favourable court ruling on Volta Grande permitting in Brazil

Belo Sun Mining (TSX: BSX) soared on Thursday after the Brazil-focused gold developer won a federal court ruling that is deemed positive for the permitting process of its flagship Volta Grande project.The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals in Brasília (TRF1) states that the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainability of the State of Pará — or SEMAS — will serve as the “competent authority” in charge of the environmental permitting process of Volta Grande going forward. The decision reverses the one made by TRF1 in September 2023 designating the Federal Brazilian Institute of the Environment (IBAMA) as the competent authority.Belo Sun views the ruling as a “positive development” for Volta Grande, as SEMAS had been conducting the project’s permitting up until that point and issued its preliminary environmental and construction licences in 2014 and 2017, respectively.The Volta Grande mining licence covers 24 sq. km of the Três Palmeiras greenstone belt in Pará state, though the actual area dedicated to mining is approximately 10 sq. km. The project is located 60 km southeast of the city of Altamira.Commenting on the positive ruling, CEO Ayesha Hira said: “We welcome the TRF1 court ruling confirming SEMAS as the permitting authority for the project, an agency that is already familiar with PVG (Volta Grande), and one that has been permitting mining projects in this important mining jurisdiction in Pará state.”Shares in Belo Sun Mining surged past its previous 52-week high to reach C$0.14 by noon ET Thursday, for an intraday gain of 58.8%. This takes its market capitalization to approximately C$52.9 million.The next stage in the permitting process will be the transferring of files back to SEMAS, as the company begins to work with them on progressing the necessary work to advance Volta Grande. The project’s construction licence is currently suspended after a circuit judge in Altamira issued an interim suspension order for the Volta Grande licences in 2022. The environmental licence was later revalidated by SEMAS following approval by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Indigenous Affairs of the company’s indigenous studies.Long-life open pitA feasibility study for Volta Grande back in 2015 envisioned a long-life open pit operation with average annual gold production of 205,000 oz.Mining will occur from an estimated reserve base of nearly 3.8 million oz. (116 million tonnes grading 1.02 g/t gold). According to Belo Sun, there is potential to grow the reserves through additional discoveries within the Três Palmeiras greenstone belt, which mainly experienced small-scale mining during the 1960-90s and remains underexplored in modern times.The project’s after-tax net present value, based on an outdated gold price assumption of $1,200/oz., is estimated at $665 million (5% discount rate), with an internal rate of return of 26%.Construction of the mine is expected to take two years, followed by about a year of ramp-up and commercial production in year 4.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com