 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed African Eagle chairperson Euan Worthington remained upbeat about the prospects for nickel and was confident that the company had identified a number of prospects amenable to low-cost leaching.
With the release of the exploration company’s preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2010, on Friday, Worthington noted that despite some parties questioning the company’s focus on nickel deposits, the company believed that nickel had a “bright future”.
He pointed out in a statement to shareholders that nickel demand had grown tenfold since 1950, which was a faster growth rate than for any other major base metal.
He acknowledged that the mining and processing of nickel laterites could be “metallurgically tricky”, with many deposits often having a high iron content that had to be processed by using high-temperature, high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL).
“This is why Dutwa is so special: its unique low-iron metallurgy will allow the nickel to be extracted efficiently from the ore by simple acid leaching, without recourse to the hi-tech complications of HPAL,” stated Worthington.
He added that African Eagle seemed to have identified “a whole new province” of oxide nickel deposits that would allow for low-cost leaching. These included its Dutwa and Ngasamo projects, as well as the Zanzui project, which could potentially be twice the size of the Dutwa project.
All three projects are located in Tanzania.
African Eagle pointed out that a scoping study had shown the Dutwa project to be viable at a base nickel price of $7/lb.
At the current $11/lb nickel price, the mine could deliver about $3,6-billion in revenues over the life-of-mine.
The company was hoping to have an updated financial model and prefeasibility report on the flagship Dutwa project completed by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Worthington noted that it would also continue to farm out or sell its noncore assets, as it pushes forward with the prefeasibility study at Dutwa.
The company recorded a net loss of £1,2-million in the 2009 financial year, compared with a loss of £5,4-million the year before.
|
|
