How Does Fredonia Mining Plan to Produce 183,000 Ounces of Gold Equivalent Annually in Years 1–5?
How a 17-year open-pit heap leach design, a 65% IRR, and strategic Argentine tax incentives are repositioning Fredonia Mining as a major gold-silver developer in the Deseado Massif.

When a junior explorer sitting on Argentine dirt hands the market a US$1.49 billion post-tax net present value, even seasoned resource analysts lean in to double-check the math.
Fredonia Mining Inc. (TSXV: FRED / OTCQB: FREDF) delivered exactly that punch with the release of its preliminary economic assessment for the flagship El Dorado Monserrat gold-silver project in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The independent study outlines an open-pit, heap-leach operation capable of churning out an annual average of 146,000 gold-equivalent ounces over a 17-year mine life, generating a post-tax internal rate of return of 65 percent.
What sets the project apart is not merely its headline numbers, but its operational efficiency. By leveraging shallow surface mineralization, the mine plan achieves a remarkably low overall waste-to-mineralized-material ratio of roughly 1.7 to 1. Production is heavily front-loaded to accelerate cash flow, averaging approximately 183,000 gold-equivalent ounces per year during its initial five years of operation and peaking at nearly 193,000 ounces in year three. Under the adopted base-case prices of US$3,800 per ounce gold and US$45 per ounce silver, life-of-mine cash costs land at a competitive US$1,632 per gold-equivalent ounce. Initial capital requirements total US$345.7 million, covering a US$143.1 million mine fleet and US$91.0 million for processing infrastructure, along with pre-stripping, engineering, and working capital needs.




