ANGLOGOLD Ashanti said on Thursday a prefeasibility study of its cornerstone greenfields project Arthur confirmed average annual production of 500,000 ounces a year to be mined at an all-in sustaining cost of $954 per ounce for its current nine year life of mine.
The findings will be submitted to AngloGold’s board for approval in June before proceeding to a feasibility study which could take a year to complete. The estimated capital cost of Arthur, located in Nevada, is $3.6bn.
“The Arthur Gold Project is a cornerstone of our strategy to build a world-class, long-life production platform in the US,” said Alberto Calderon, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti.
The project consists of two deposits – Merlin and Silicon – which have a mineral reserve of 4.9 million oz contained gold and 7.8 million oz contained silver. There was also major resource and reserve expansion potential at Merlin: “This is just the beginning,” said Calderon.
Mining in Beatty district, where the Arthur Project is specifically located, has been underway for the past century. AngloGold’s prospect was first discovered in 2018.
Speaking in February, Calderon said Arthur was “among the best gold discoveries, certainly in the US, in decades”. The project is not yet permitted.
“We don’t have exact timelines at the moment, but what I can tell you is that we want to have the project in construction before the end of this decade, with production commencing at the beginning of the next decade,” Calderon said. In its second or third year of production it would supply 800,000 oz to the market and will add reserves incrementally. “We do expect to add between one and 1.4 million ounces in 2026,” he added.
“It is likely to add many millions of ounces of reserves as drilling progresses. The orebody is simple to mine, its metallurgy is simple and its geology is fairly simple,” said René Hochreiter, an analyst for Noah Capital.
Permitting of mining projects can take as much as three to four years. Asked previously to comment on the process for Arthur, Calderon said that while there was “tremendous support” from the federal and state governments it wasn’t possible to give specific timelines. “There are so many things outside our control,” he said.
The project’s tier 1 nature “has the potential to help drive a further re-rating over the medium-term,” said UBS previously.
AngloGold unveiled a $1.8bn payout at its results. This represented 62% of $2.9bn in free cash generation for 2025 and included a fourth quarter $860m interim dividend. Free cash flow in the last three months of the year was $1bn when the gold price averaged $4,171/oz. Gold is currently trading at $4,442/oz.
