Fremont NPV jumps 101%: project economics and risk notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Stormlands Mining’s decision-intelligence case study on Lode Gold Resources’ Fremont project in Mariposa County, California, doubles the modelled NPV to US$511.5 million by applying a gold price of US$4,245.22/oz to the project’s 2026 technical report. The revised scenario lifts projected life-of-mine revenue from US$3.45 billion to US$4.17 billion, increases IRR from 11.16% to 16.66%, and shortens payback from 8.5 years to 5 years 11 months at a 5% discount rate. Fremont, a 13.56 km² property with historical grades of 10.7 g/t Au, is being drilled ahead of a 2027 pre-feasibility study.
Technical Brief
- Stormlands’ base case for Fremont generated an initial NPV of US$254.7 million at 5% discount.
- The same modelled scenario lifted projected EBITDA from US$1.77 billion to US$2.47 billion.
- Fremont’s historical underground mine, suspended in the 1930s, reported grades of 10.7 g/t Au (10.7 g/st).
- Property footprint is 13.56 km² in Mariposa County, approximately 240 km from San Francisco.
- The modelling is framed as sensitivity analysis to gold price and not a substitute for full PEA-level engineering, costing and risk work.
- Fremont joins Odienné, MPD and Bralorne in Stormlands’ “library series” of decision-intelligence economic case studies.
Our Take
Stormlands Mining has now published similarly large NPV uplifts for Odienné in Côte d’Ivoire and Bralorne in British Columbia, so Fremont extends a pattern in our database where its AI-based re‑runs systematically re‑rate gold projects across very different jurisdictions.
With Fremont sitting in California’s Mariposa County and other Stormlands‑analysed assets like Bralorne located in Canada, operators considering this style of third‑party economic re‑evaluation will need to factor in quite different permitting and ESG baselines even if the headline NPVs look comparable.
The 2027 pre‑feasibility study timing at Fremont means any owner or acquirer has a multi‑year window to test Stormlands’ price and cost assumptions against their own models, a step that has become more common in our gold-project coverage as developers try to avoid over‑reliance on optimistic AI‑driven scenarios.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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