PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) on the Ovoot early development project (OEDP), in Mongolia, has delivered a robust financial outcome, ASX-listed Aspire Mining reported this week.
The OEDP is expected to deliver four-million tonnes a year of washed saleable coal over an initial 9.2-year period, from a single openpit operation that would make use of only a small portion of the overall Ovoot project reserves.
The base-case development would require a capital investment of $63-million and would deliver a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $586-million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 43.7%. The OEDP would deliver average annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amoritsation of $172-million and would have a 24-month payback from the start of commercial production.
An extended case would see the further cutback of the OEDP pit, increasing the mine life to 12.5 years while maintaining the output at four-million tonnes a year. This would deliver a pre-tax NPV of $758-million and an IRR of 44.5%.
“The OEDP is set to transform Aspire into a significant long-term coking coal producer,” said executive chairperson David Paull.
“The board and the company’s major shareholders are committed to advancing the OEDP to first production as quickly as possible,” Paull added, noting that a definitive feasibility study for the OEDP was expected in the September quarter of this year.
If approved, the OEDP would start construction in the fourth quarter of 2019, and would be commissioned in the first quarter of 2021.