Lumina Gold kicks off feasibility study for Ecuador project

Canada’s Lumina Gold (TSX-V: LUM) has commissioned Ausenco Engineering to lead the feasibility study for its Cangrejos gold-copper project in Ecuador, which the company said is among the world’s top 15 gold assets under development.

The Vancouver-based company said the it had also appointed a full team of consultants from ten companies to support the completion of the study, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.

Lumina published last year the prefeasibility study for Cangrejos, in southwest Ecuador, which put initial capex at $925 million and average gold equivalent production at 469,000 ounces over a 26-year mine life.

The planned processing plant for the mine, which is also Ecuador’s largest primarily gold, is a conventional copper-gold flotation concentrator and hybrid leach-carbon-in-leach circuit.

Ecuador has abundant mineral reserves but has lagged behind regional neighbours such as Peru and Chile in large-scale mining development.

The Constitutional Court helped last year to clarify rules governing prior consent for mining projects, which according to mining chamber boss, Maria Eulalia Silva, has sped up permitting.