PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal developer Atrum Coal has reduced the expected capital cost and increased the mine life of its proposed Groundhog North project, in Canada, after doubling the resource estimate earlier this month.
ASX-listed Atrum on Monday reported that a supplementary prefeasibility study (PFS) into the 5.4-million-tonne-a-year run-of-mine Groundhog North project delivered improved economics of $58-million to deliver a small-scale mining operation.
The projected mine life increased by 138%, from 16 years to 38 years, while the project’s net present value increased by 62%, to A$1.68-billion, and its internal rate of return increased from 39% to 42%.
“The supplementary PFS has delivered outstanding improvements to project economics following our recent resource upgrade at Groundhog North,” said executive chairperson James Chisholm.
The project was estimated to host some 609-million tonnes of resource, including a measured resource of 156-million tonnes, an indicated resource of 193-million tonnes and an inferred resource of 260-million tonnes.
Groundhog North covers less than 5% of Atrum’s broader Groundhog anthracite project, which is estimated to host some 1.57-billion tonnes of resource.
“Subject to permitting, we anticipate our first coal sales in the second half of 2015 from the world’s largest undeveloped ultra-high grade anthracite deposit,” Chisholm added.