TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Tungsten project developer Northcliff Resources has passed a critical milestone, with the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government (NBDELG) completing a review of the Sisson project draft environmental-impact assessment (EIA) report and clearing it to start public consultations.

Northcliff is the controlling stakeholder of the Sisson Mines partnership, in association with New Zealand-based Todd Minerals, which is developing the Sisson tungsten/molybdenum project.

The company said on Monday that the details of the public consultation process and duration would be announced by NBDELG within the next month.

"The acceptance of the Sisson project final EIA report for Northcliff advances our goal of creating a significant new North American tungsten producer. We look forward to the public consultation period as it marks one of the final steps in the provincial EIA process. It will give the public an opportunity to review our comprehensive plans to build and operate an environmentally sound and socially responsible project that will provide significant benefits in the province of New Brunswick,” Northcliff president and CEO Chris Zahovskis noted.

In January 2013, Northcliff completed a feasibility study for the project, which gave it a pretax net present value (NPV) of C$714-million at an 8% discount rate, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 20.4% and a 4.1-year payback on the initial capital expenditures of C$579-million, at long-term metal prices of $350/t for ammonium paratungstate (APT) and $15/lb for molybdenum.

Sisson would be developed as an efficient bulk-tonnage operation and Northcliff intended to undertake value‐added processing of tungsten concentrates by constructing and operating Canada’s first APT plant at the project site, which would add significant economic value to the project.

After deducting tax, Sisson had a C$418-million NPV, a 16.3% IRR and a 4.5-year payback on the initial capital expense.

Located 100 km by road north-west of Fredericton, the Sisson property hosted a 334-million-ton proven and probable mineral reserve, containing 22.2-million metric ton units of tungsten trioxide and 154.8-million pounds of molybdenum at an $8.83/t net smelter return cutoff.