
H i n d a Phosphate Project Definitive Feasibility Study Cominco Resources – Hinda Phosphate Project Update Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS)complete, NPV10 After Tax of US $1.87 billion, UngearedAfter Tax IRR of 38%, Capital cost of US$601M, Cash cost (average for first five years)of $36.6 t FOB and in lowest industry quartile, Payback period on development cost of 26 months, World Bank - IFC compliant ESIA targeted for completion in August 2015, Mining license approval is imminent Cominco Resources Limited (Cominco)continues to develop its 100% owned Hinda Phosphate Project (Project) in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and has now completed the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). The main participants in the DFS were: Cominco, who prepared sections ongeological definition and the Mineral Resource Estimate (by CSA Global)marketing studies and price forecasts (by CRU Consulting),legal framework, permitting status and community relations; SRK Consulting (UK) (SRK)who provided the JORC compliant Ore Reserve Statement, mine design and schedules and the mine capital and operating cost estimates. SRK also completedreports on hydrology, hydrogeology and geotechnical investigations. These studies have facilitated the design and cost estimation of the water management systems and the tailings storage facility as well as the mine itself; Ausenco Engineering (Ausenco), who were responsible for the overall management and coordination of the DFS, including the metallurgical test work program and the design and costing of the beneficiation plant at Hinda and Pointe Indienne. Ausenco carried out product slurry testwork, facilitating the design and costing of the concentrate pipeline and completed the design and cost estimation of the export jetty, based on their evaluation of available bathymetric and geophysical data; Mintek, who conducted the metallurgical bench and piloting test work; Prayon, in Belgium, who carried out acidulation test work on the concentrate generated in the pilot campaigns to evaluate its amenability to the production of phosphoric acid and DAP; and WSP (Genivar), who managed the environmental baseline studies and the development of an independent ESIA for the exploitation phase of the Project. The Project is located in the coastal province of Kouilou and is favorably situated 37km from the port city of Pointe-Noire, the economic capital of ROC. Pointe-Noire is a major deep-water container port on the Atlantic coast of central Africa. Hinda Phosphate Project Definitive Feasibility Study The Project involves the development of an open cut mining operation including in-pit crushing of an average 20 Mt/y of ore. The ore will be delivered to a beneficiation plant that will upgrade the apatite to produce 4.1 Mt/y of saleable phosphate rock concentrate (Phosrock) grading 32% P2O5. A slurry pipeline will transport this product 42 km to the export facility at Pointe Indienne immediately north of Pointe-Noire. Product dewatering, drying, storage and ship loading facilities will be built at Pointe Indienne. The Project includes all of the infrastructure required to support the development including power and gas transmission, accommodation and other buildings, access roads and mobile equipment. The DFS demonstrates that the Hinda Project is technically and commercially robust and has the capacity to repay its US$601M development cost within 26months of production generating an after-tax, ungeared 38% IRR and NPV10% of US$1.85 billion. The Hinda deposit is one of the world’s largest and thickest undeveloped phosphate JORC Ore Reserves. It has a low overburden to ore ratio and can be open pit mined, by free- digging, with no requirement for ripping or blasting. A total of 929 diamond and reverse circulation holes have been drilled in the Hinda deposit covering a linear distance of 66,231 m. Phosphate mineralisation is hosted by Upper Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments and is up to 65 m thick and from surface at the mine start location. The JORC Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources is in total 581.5 Mt @ 10.4 % P2O5 at a 5% cut off. SRK has completed an Ore Reserve Statement, based on a 20km long section of the ore body, which provides the life of mine ore schedule for the economic analysis. The Proved and Probable Ore Reserve is 404.9 Mt @ 11.0% P2O5. The ore body remains open to both the north and south of the DFS study zone. The project capital costs are inclusive of all necessary equipment, infrastructure and services required to extract the ore from the mine and to deliver product into a vessel at the port. The costs for mechanical equipment and bulk materials, such as concrete, structural steel and earthworks, have been obtained from quotations. Capital costs include allowances for contingency and Owners costs. The economic analysis includes sustaining capital largely associated with the ongoing expansion of the mine, the associated pit dewatering and the replacement of mining equipment. The operating costs are inclusive of labour, electrical power, natural gas, maintenance spares, reagents, consumables and administrative costs. Unit operating costs have been built up on the basis of firm quotations and in the case of labour, have been based on an evaluation of the rates and regulations prevailing in ROC. The Phosrock pricing assumptions in the financial model are derived from CRU’s estimated long run marginal cost of production. H i n d a Phosphate Project Definitive Feasibility Study The primary outcomes of the DFS are summarised below; Table 1.0 Project Fundamentals Item Value Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource 581.5 Mt Mineral Resource average grade 10.4% P2O5 Proved and Probable Ore Reserve 404.9mt Mine life based on Ore Reserves 24years Ore Reserve average phosphate grade 11.00% Mined Ore – years 1 to 5 76 dMt Run of mine head feed grade– years 1 to 5 13.1 % P205 Mined Ore – Years 1 to 20 351 dMt Run of mine head feed grade – 20 year average 11.03 % P205 Average ROM throughput -20 year average (kdt Pa) 17,526 Waste:Ore ratio – years 1 to 5 (m3:t) 0.747 Waste:Ore – years 1 to 20 (m3:t) 1.387 Mill Power (installed) 7.5MW Peak Mill feed (after screening) – 20 year 8.56dMt Pa Mill feed grade (after screening) – years 1 – 5 21.9 % P205 Mill feed grade (after screening) – 20 year average 20.46 % P205 Time weighted product price 148.8 $/t Overall product mass recovery average (1-20) 21.1% Annual production of Phosrock concentrate (av.) 4.1 Mt Phosrock product grade 32% P2O5 Phosrock product minor element ratio 0.06 Phosrock product CaO / P2O5 ratio 1.52 Pre-production capital expenditure $601.3m Lead time to first production 2 years Average cash operating cost FOB – first 5 years $36.57/t Phosrock Average cash operating cost FOB – years 6-10 $41.52 /t Phosrock Base case Phosrock price – average 148.8 $/t Internal Rate of Return (100% equity, post tax) 38% Payback after production commences 26 Months Capital intensity 150$/t Project Location Advantages: ROC is a stable and safe place to work and invest, with a developed commercial sector, following the long-term success of the country’s oil and gas industry. Pointe-Noire city, with a population of over 1M, is the economic capital of the country, and an attractive coastal city, home to a substantial, residential-based expatriate community. Figure 1 identifies the location of the Hinda mine and beneficiation plant together with the product pipeline easement and the concentrate dewatering and export facilities at Pointe Indienne Hinda Phosphate Project Definitive Feasibility Study Figure 1: Cominco Hinda Project Location Map. The close proximity of the Project to local infrastructure minimises the Project’s capital and operating costs, and the key advantages can be summarised as follows: Ease of access to Pointe-Noire with its international airport and deep water port, which will be utilised for import of construction equipment, reagents and spares. H i n d a Phosphate Project Definitive Feasibility Study The dual carriageway, paved highway N1 passes through Hinda village from where an upgraded 12 km access road will link with the Hinda mine and beneficiation plant; The Pointe-Noire facilities are close to the sealed N5 highway that links with Pointe-Noire; Therecently constructed 300 MW gas-fired power station to the south of Pointe- Noiretransmits electrical power via the national grid. A substation 17 km from the beneficiation plant will be upgraded to provide electricity to the Hinda site. Another substationissituated 15km from the Pointe Indienne de watering facilities and the export jetty. The total connected electrical load is 45.1 MW A buried slurry pipeline will deliver Phosrock product from the Hinda beneficiation plant to the dewatering facilities at Pointe Indienne. The line will travel a relatively short distance of 42km and the easement is flat and passes through existing state owned land. Natural gas will be employed for drying of the product Phosrock and this is available in the immediate project location. The gas requirement is 3,661 GJ/day. The diesel requirement for the project (49.2 kL/day) is largely dictated by the mining operation. A refinery, that produces a variety of products including diesel, is located just north of Pointe-Noire. Neither the Project area nor the routes required for Project infrastructure fall within any protected area, nature reserve or sanctuary or area of known environmental or cultural sensitivity. Geology and Resources: The phosphatedeposit is located within a graben structure between 300 m and 800 m wide and extending for more than 20 km in a north to south direction. The depth to mineralisation is very shallow, less than 10 m in the south and slowly deepens northwards where overburden is between 40 m to 65 m thick.
Details
-
File Typepdf
-
Upload Time-
-
Content LanguagesEnglish
-
Upload UserAnonymous/Not logged-in
-
File Pages13 Page
-
File Size-