there's lots of good news here, and only one piece of not-so-good news: it would cost $3.4 billion to put snowfield into production, so this is a project for sale or maybe joint venture with a major

Study Highlights

Based on the Preliminary Assessment, the Snowfield Project will be operated as an open pit mine with an average life-of-mine waste to mineral material stripping ratio of 0.54:1 and a 120,000 tonnes per day mill feed rate. Snowfield's mine life is estimated at approximately 23 years. An annual average of 607,000 ounces of gold (contained in concentrate and dore), 57.8 million pounds of copper (contained in concentrate), 1.5 million ounces of silver (contained in concentrate and dore) and 4.5 million pounds of molybdenum (contained in concentrate) will be produced from the mill.

Capital expenditures, including contingencies, are estimated to be US$3.4 billion. The Snowfield Project has an estimated pre-tax net present value of US$877 million (5% discount rate) and an internal rate of return of 8.1% using base case metals prices of US$878/ounce gold, US$14.50/ounce silver, US$17/pound molybdenum and US$2.95/pound copper. The Preliminary Assessment is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the Preliminary Assessment will be realized.

Preliminary results from an ongoing metallurgical program indicate the potential for significant rhenium recoveries at Snowfield. The potential impact of rhenium on the project's economics, as well as the inclusion of the higher-grade gold and silver resources of the company's adjacent Brucejack Project (summarized in Table 6), will be examined in an updated Preliminary Assessment which is already underway.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Silver-Standard-Resources-Inc-iw-479610058.html?x=0&.v=1