The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead agency for the Donlin Gold Environmental Impact Statement, plans to issue a draft EIS for public comment toward year's end 2015 and the final EIS is expected to be completed by early 2017. This puts Donlin Gold LLC - an operating company equally owned by subsidiaries of Novagold and Barrick Gold Corp. - on pace to begin construction within two years, if the partners decide that building the gold mine is prudent. A feasibility study completed in 2011 envisions a 53,500-metric-ton-per-day mill at Donlin producing an average of 1.1 million ounces of gold annually at a cash-cost of US$585 per ounce for 27 years. During its first five years of operation, the massive mine is designed to extract 1.5 million oz of gold annually at an average cash cost of US$409 per ounce.