Page 72 By Frank Giorno IAMGOLD invested in the Cote Gold Project southwest of T immins when it purchased the property from T re lawney Mining in 201 1 and the price of gold was 1800 Cdn but then the market began to slide and price dropped to about 1200 Cdn by 2012 After several lean years IAMGOLD has reasons for optimism In 2016 gold rises were once again approach ing the 1800 Cdn level T oday they sit at about 1600 Cdn Like other gold mining companies we just tried to survive commented Steve W oolfenden Environmental Director for IAMGOLD s during Sudbury s Modern Mining and T ech nology W eek in April 2017 W eve managed through that downturn In the meantime IAMGOLD worked on completing its Environmental As sessment and prefeasibility studies IAMGOLD completed its EA and at to demonstrate economic viability of the project to support minera l reserve disclosure and to identify additional work recommended to support the completion of a feasibility study The PreFeasibility Study indicates Proven and Probable Re serves of 59 million ounces Mine Life of 17 years with mill throughput of 32000 tpd Life of Mine LOM average annual production of 320000 oz A verage grade 094 gt Au LOM cash costs of 605oz and allin sustaining costs of 689oz At 1250oz gold price af ter tax Net Asset V alue of 703M 5 discount rate After tax Internal Rate of Re turn of 14 with payback period of 45 years Initial capital expenditures of 1047M The robust project economics gen erated from the PFS further validates our view that Cote Gold is an excep tional or ganic growth project par ticularly when our industry faces a shortage of undeveloped gold depos its in attractive mining jurisdictions with surrounding infrastructure said Steve Letwin President and CEO of IAMGOLD This is a project with low operating costs and an attractive rate of return that s expected to deliver 320000 ounces a year for 17 years The con version of nearly six million ounces from resources to reserves on a proj tained both On tario and federal government ap proval In June 2017 IAMGOLD an nounced positive results for its pre feasibility study for the Cote Gold Project The re sults outlined an economically vi able project and confrm the de velopment con cept previously set out in the Preliminary Eco nomic Assess ment IAMGOLD is us ing the PFS Pre Feasibility Study to identify the preferred devel opment option Renewed Optimism in IAMGOLD s Cote Gold Pr oject