The US$782 an ounce in Falco Resources’ new feasibility study is a net number. It is the all-in sustaining cost of gold at the Horne 5 project after revenue from copper, zinc and silver has been subtracted, and the company calculates it under the World Gold Council definition minus corporate G&A. Under the hood, the cost story depends on what else comes out of the ground.
The study, dated June 17, 2026, was prepared under NI 43-101 for a 15-year underground mine in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. At US$3,600 gold it returns an after-tax NPV of C$3.35 billion at a 5% discount, an IRR of 28.2% and C$6.4 billion in life-of-mine after-tax cash flow. Average output is 220,300 payable ounces a year.
The price deck
As ever, the assumptions decide everything. The base case uses silver at US$50.00, copper at US$4.80 a pound, zinc at US$1.35 a pound and C$1.34 to the U.S. dollar. The spot case, struck on May 31, 2026, swaps in gold at US$4,500, silver at US$75.00, copper at US$6.40, zinc at US$1.60 and C$1.38. NPV in that scenario is C$5.1 billion.
The resource estimate underneath is more cautious than either. Martin Perron of Norda Stelo prepared it with an effective date of June 2, 2026, using gold at US$3,300, copper at US$4.60 and zinc at US$1.25, all below the study’s base case.
It lists Measured resources of 13.0M tonnes, Indicated of 109.4M tonnes and Inferred of 30.1M tonnes. Their net smelter return values run from $191.98 to $204.98 per tonne against a $75 cut-off. That cut-off is built from mining costs of $16.90 per tonne, milling of $28.13 and G&A of $29.97. Resources, the notes remind readers, are not reserves.
The bill
Falco puts forward capital and pre-production costs at C$1.75 billion, including a 10.9% contingency, with processing costs at C$61.74 a tonne. The payback period is 3.3 years in the base case and 2.6 in the spot case.
Five firms contributed engineering and resource work: BBA, WSP, ASDR, Norda Stelo and RIVVAL. CEO Luc Lessard, a professional engineer, oversaw the study. He called Horne 5 a large-scale, long-life project and credited “highly automated, modern operations” along with the copper and zinc credits for the low cost.
The site is adjacent to the Glencore smelter, which processes copper concentrates and precious-metal-bearing recyclable materials into 99.1% copper anodes. Falco lists three areas for later optimization studies: exploration at depth, larger underground stopes, and tie-ins with that smelter. A regional land package of about 60,000 hectares sits behind it all.
