Sheffield looks at smaller Thunderbird
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands developer Sheffield Resources was considering a smaller start-up operation for its Thunderbird project, in Western Australia, saying on Thursday that a bankable feasibility study (BFS) would be undertaken shortly.
In October last year, Thunderbird released an updated prefeasibility study (PFS) for the Thunderbird project that considered a throughput of 12-million tonnes a year, increasing to 18-million tonnes a year, to produce an average of 100 000 t/y of zircon and 382 000 t/y of high-grade sulphate ilmenite over the life of the mine.
The PFS estimated that the project would require a capital investment of A$271-million, delivering yearly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of A$135-million over a 40-year mine life.
The BFS, however, would be smaller in scope, with throughput planned to start at 7.5-million tonnes a year and ramping up to 15-million tonnes a year from the fourth year of operations.
Sheffield told shareholders that the decreased output would allow the company the opportunity to capture the benefit of higher head-grade in the project’s early years.
The exact timing of the move to a 15-million-tonne-a-year throughput would be refined in the BFS, in conjunction with marketing initiatives, including discussions with potential offtake partners. The BFS would also look at simplifying the ore processing, which could allow for further capital and operating cost reductions.
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