Russia-focused Amur Minerals has completed a prefeasibility study (PFS) for Kun-Manie, which has found the nickel/copper sulphide project to be technically and economically viable for two production scenarios.
The base case, which represents the quickest and lowest initial capital cost investment pathway to revenue generation, consists of the sale of concentrate to purchases based on typical nickel industry offtake net smelter return schedules. This is the toll smelt, or TS, option.
The TS option will require an initial capital investment of $570.4-million and returned a net present value (NPV), using a 10% discount, of $614.5-million, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 29.3% and a three-year payback period.
This option is projected to produce 24 306 t/y of payable nickel at an all-in sustaining cost of $9 890/t, or $4.49/lb.
The second option uses the same operational considerations as the TS option, but includes the addition of an electric furnace/flash (FFS) smelter at Amur’s Bam rail station. This owner-operated facility will treat sulphide concentrate generating a low-grade matte, which would be shipped to the Port of Vladivostok.
The FFS option includes consideration of typical intermediate nickel product offtake terms.
The FFS option requires an initial capital investment of $695-million and yielded a NPV of $987.4-million, an IRR of 34.7% and also a three-year payback period.
This option will produce an average 29 155 nickel-equivalent tonnes.
Kun-Manie has a mineral resource containing 155.1-million ore tonnes, comprising a nickel-equivalent grade of 1.02%, equating to 1.58-million equivalent tonnes of nickel.
It will require a three-year construction period and operate for 15 years. Production will derive from four openpits and one underground mining operation.