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http://www.miningweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oi… HEAP LEACH OR DIRECT-SHIP PRODUCTION Low cost, lower tech nickel mine projects attracting attention The continuing high nickel price has prompted companies to look at new solutions for mining and treating low cost lateritic ores without the need for high cost complex metallurgical plants. Author: Lawrence Williams and John Chadwick Posted: Friday , 13 Apr 2007 With base metal prices all remaining at high levels, opportunities are opening up for the development of projects previously considered sub-economic - particularly if lower cost production methods are brought into play. This is particularly true in the nickel sector where the cost of a metallurgical plant suitable for treating lateritic-type ores can run into a billion US dollars or more which is way beyond virtually all junior miners' financing capabilities. If means can be found, though, of either producing a concentrate relatively cheaply by other means and selling the product to an existing metallurgical plant which needs the feed, or where other metal content alongside the nickel may make direct sale and shipping of the unprocessed product viable, then a whole new opportunity may exist for junior miners. Such is the case with Regency Mines (AIM: RGM, Frankfurt: RG4) which is confident it can mine low grade nickel limonite ore at its Papua New Guinea Mambare property and direct ship the low grade nickel and cobalt product direct to Chinese blast furnace operations for the latter to make a nickel-rich pig iron as an intermediate product for ultimate stainless steel production. What may make this economically viable is the relatively high iron content of the resource (up to around 50%) which would effectively be free of cost to the Chinese, with the latter paying for the nickel and cobalt content alone. Regency's Mambare project covers a huge area of 584 km2 which is only 110km by metalled and gravel road to a port facility at Oro Bay. Regency's Graham Rolfe, who is managing the project in PNG, told Mineweb at a presentation in London, that he is confident that such a project is viable and because of the close to surface, and easy working of the limonite material, a project to mine 1 million tonnes a year, and direct ship it to China, could be fast tracked to production in around six months from project go-ahead. Further, according to company chairman, Andrew Bell, there are already expressions of interest from Chinese steelmakers for such an operation. Previous exploration on the property was conducted by several companies in the 1960's, including the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Homestake-Hanna Syndicate, Amax Mining (Australia) Inc., Southern Mining & Development Co. Ltd. and PNG Nickel Ltd. Exploration consisted of pitting and hand augering with at least one bulldozer trench being dug. Between 1960 and 1971, 240 Auger holes were drilled, and 56 pits and one costean dug. In 1999 Anaconda Nickel Ltd reviewed the data over a 158 sq km area of the Mambare Plateau and estimated two limonite resource potentials: 630 Mt at 0.78% nickel with a 0.5% cut-off and 200 Mt at 1.01% nickel with a 0.8% cut-off. The limonites are underlain by a higher grade saprolite, but this would almost certainly need a high cost HPAL metallurgical plant to process. The current resource is put at around 200 million tonnes of soft limonitic material at surface grading 1% nickel and 0.1% cobalt, underlain by the harder saprolites with a similar tonnage and grades of 1.25-1.5% nickel. An infill drilling programme is to be undertaken to convert the old Anaconda data to resources and reserves. Regency's current plan is to mine the limonites and generate sufficient income to be able to contemplate the high capital costs of an HPAL plant at a later stage....... |
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| aus der Diskussion: | REGENCY MINES PLC - ja ist denn schon Weihnachten? |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | XIO (28.04.07 16:55:17) |
| Beitrag: | 2 von 295 (ID:29045026) |
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