The Marathon Palladium-Copper Project is located along the Trans-Canada Highway in Northwestern Ontario. An Updated Feasibility Study has indicated the Marathon Palladium-Copper Project has a net present value of C$1.16 billion (using a 6% discount rate) with a payback of 2.3 years and a robust internal rate of return of 25.8% based on US$1800/oz and US$3.70/lb for palladium and copper respectively. The Marathon Palladium-Copper Project is projected to produce a total of 3.6 million ounces of Palladium Equivalent (PdEq) over its current 12.5-year mine life. Initial capital costs are estimated at C$1.11 billion, ($898 million net of equipment financing and pre-commercial production revenue). At US$1800/oz Pd and US$3.70/lb Cu approximately 58% of the revenue will come from palladium, with 29% coming from copper. The remaining revenue will come from platinum, gold and silver. Operating costs are estimated at US$709 per ounce PdEq, while All-In-Sustaining Costs are estimated at US$813 per ounce PdEq.

The Marathon Project involves the construction, operation, decommissioning, and remediation of three open pits to produce copper concentrate, consisting primarily of copper, palladium and platinum, critical minerals, an onsite ore processing facility, a 115 kV transmission line, an access road, a mine rock storage area, a process solids management facility, and a water management system, amongst other infrastructure. The updated Feasibility Study outlines the process plant throughput starting at 9.2 Mt per year (25,200 t/d) and increasing to 10.1 Mt per year (27,700 t/d) following the completion of the powerline upgrade scheduled year two of operations. The increase in process plant throughput is possible with the inclusion of the Hycroft mills in the plant design. The process plant will produce a copper-palladium concentrate. The concentrate will be delivered to a third-party facility for further downstream processing into refined critical minerals.  

A Joint Review Panel (JRP), composed of federal and provincial representatives, was established to review the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the Marathon Palladium-Copper Project and to conduct public hearings to enable Generation Mining to outline and explain the key elements of the Marathon Project and to answer questions from government agencies, non-government organizations, local and regional communities and Indigenous groups. The process followed a thorough, multi-year, joint federal and provincial environmental assessment process, with input received from Indigenous groups, the public, federal government departments including the Ministry of Environment Canada and Climate Change, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Transport Canada, and provincial government departments including Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Labour, and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority. Generation Mining filed its EIS with the JRP in early 2021 and the public hearings related to the submission commenced March 14, 2022 and concluded May 19, 2022.

On August 2, 2022, the Joint Review Panel (representing Canada and the Province of Ontario) issued its Environment Impact Statement Report to the Federal and Provincial Ministers of the Environment.

On November 30, 2022, The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and The Honourable David Piccini, Ontario Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, each announced that the Company’s Marathon Project may proceed, subject to conditions set out in the federal decision statement (the “Decision Statement”) and the provincial approval order (the “Approval Order”), respectively.

These government decisions validate the work done to date to develop the Marathon Project as a sustainable, environmentally sensitive, low-cost producer of critical metals that are needed to support emissions controls and the transition to a greener economy. 

Gen Mining continues to work on de-risking and optimizing the Marathon Project, making significant progress on detailed engineering and financing. The Decision Statement and Approval Order included conditions on such matters as ongoing consultation, follow-up programs, reporting, information sharing, fish and fish habitat, migratory birds, wildlife, greenhouse gas emissions, health and socio-economic conditions of Indigenous peoples, the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes, and reclamation, amongst other things.  The Company is reviewing the conditions in the Decision Statement and Approval Order to determine any impacts on the project schedule.  The Company will continue to work expeditiously to satisfy any pre-construction condition(s) and ensure compliance with all of the conditions needed to advance construction and operations in a timely manner, as it progresses towards a final investment decision.