Name of the Project
Dumont nickel/cobalt project.

Location
Dumont is located in the western portion of the Abitibi region, in Quebec, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Dumont Joint Venture, which comprises RNC Minerals and Arpent, a subsidiary of Waterton Precious Metals Fund II Cayman, and Waterton Mining Parallel Fund Offshore Master.

Project Description
Once in production, Dumont will be one of the largest base metal mines in Canada, one of the top five sulphide nickel producers globally, and one of the only large-scale fully permitted nickel/cobalt projects that can begin to satisfy the significant growth in nickel and cobalt demand driven by the electric vehicle sector, according to RNC.

According to the updated feasibility, Dumont will be an openpit mine/mill operation using conventional drilling and blasting, with loading by a combination of hydraulic excavators and electric rope shovels into trucks ranging in capacity from 45 t to 290 t.

The process plant will be built in two phases.

Phase I will have an initial average throughput of 52 500 t/d using a seminautogenous grinding mill and two ball mills for grinding, cyclones for desliming, conventional flotation and magnetic separation to produce a nickel concentrate also containing cobalt and platinum-group elements.

Phase II throughput will be doubled to 105 000 t/d in Year 7 by mirroring the first line.

Initial nickel production in concentrate is estimated at 33 000 t/y, ramping up to 50 000 t/y

in the Phase II expansion. Over the project’s 30-year mine life, it is expected to produce about 1.2-million tonnes of nickel in concentrate.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $1.71-billion and an internal rate of return of 19.9%

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at $1.02-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Ausenco (feasibility study).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
RNC Minerals, Rob Buchanan, tel +1416363 0649 or email rbuchanan@rncminerals.com.