Pretium – Pretium’s Predictable Predicament
Viceroy Research, 10 January 2019
Pretium released the Brucejack Mine’s Q4 2018 production update yesterday after-market, and market reaction shows it fell short of expectations. Pretium’s ore grade has predictably fallen since Q2 2018 by >22%, leading to a miss of Pretium’s H2 low-end gold production guidance of 200,000 ounces. At 11.5g/t, Pretium’s head grade is now 30% below feasibility study sampling.
Per our previous reports, Viceroy believe Pretium’s grades will continue to fall as Pretium appear to be at the tail end of extracting high-grade deposits found along the Cleopatra Vein. As a reminder to our readers, we have appended this section of our thesis to this note.
Pretium have attributed their production and grade shortfall on their grade control system, which they state will be refined. We believe this is an unnerving excuse, and have provided substantial evidence to support our thesis that Pretium is overmining or selectively mining its deposits.
