Open-Pit Gold Mine NPV and IRR Valuation Model – Excel XLSX

BENEFITS OF THIS DOWNLOADABLE EXCEL DOCUMENT

1. Values an open-pit gold project in minutes, from reserves and costs to after-tax NPV, IRR and AISC per ounce.
2. Shows which assumptions move value most, with a tornado chart and a gold price by grade NPV grid.
3. Uses transparent, bilingual English and Chinese formulas that are easy to audit, adapt and present.

MINING INDUSTRY EXCEL DESCRIPTION

Open-Pit Gold Mine NPV and IRR Valuation Model is an Excel template (XLSX) available for immediate download upon purchase.

This Excel model values an open-pit gold project the way you would on a first-pass screen before a PEA, an acquisition call or an investment committee. You type in reserves, grade, mining rate, recovery, costs, capital, tax and your gold price deck; the model builds the full life-of-mine schedule and returns the numbers decision-makers ask for.

What is the model used for?

To answer quickly and transparently whether an open-pit gold project is worth pursuing, what it is worth at a given gold price, how much funding it needs, and which assumptions matter most.

Key outputs
• After-tax NPV (real, discounted to start of construction) and IRR
• Payback period and peak funding requirement
• Payable gold production by year and over the life of mine
• C1 cash cost and all-in sustaining cost (AISC) per ounce
• Annual and cumulative free cash flow charts
• Sensitivity: tornado table for gold price, grade, operating cost and initial capex, plus a 5×5 gold price × grade NPV grid

Inputs covered

Ore reserve, head grade, mining and processing rate, strip ratio, metallurgical recovery, mining, processing and G&A costs, refining and royalty, initial capex and phasing, sustaining capex, closure cost, tax rate, discount rate and a year-by-year gold price deck, plus scenario factors for price, grade, opex and capex.

Built-in simplifications (stated on the Guide sheet)
• Annual, real-terms, end-of-year cash flows
• Straight-line depreciation of initial capex; no tax-loss carry-forward or working capital
• Flat average grade (overwrite the grade row on Cash Flow for a grade profile)

What you get
• One .xlsx file with 5 sheets: Guide, Summary, Inputs, Cash Flow, Sensitivity
• 1,246 live formulas, no macros, no hidden sheets, no locked cells or passwords
• Blue-on-yellow input cells; every output can be traced back to an input
• All labels in English and Simplified Chinese
• Works in Excel 2016+ / Microsoft 365 and LibreOffice

How to work with the template
• On the Inputs sheet, replace every yellow cell with your project's numbers.
• Enter your price deck for each production year.
• Read the results on the Summary sheet and check the annual detail on Cash Flow.
• Use the Sensitivity sheet to see which assumption moves NPV the most, then use the scenario factors on Inputs to test your own cases.

Who is it for?

Mining analysts and investors screening a deal, junior-miner management preparing a first-pass economic case, corporate development and M&A teams, consultants, lenders, and students learning mine valuation.

Important notes
• The example project and all figures are fictional and for illustration only.
• This is a modelling template for screening and education. It is not investment advice and is not a substitute for an NI 43-101 / JORC technical study or a Competent / Qualified Person's opinion.
• You receive the fully editable Excel file.

About the author

Built by an investment and M&A professional working on the buy side in gold mining and industrials in Hong Kong and Singapore. Custom adaptations to your project data are available on request.

Source: Best Practices in Mining Industry, Integrated Financial Model Excel: Open-Pit Gold Mine NPV and IRR Valuation Model Excel (XLSX) Spreadsheet, gx76520