Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore hopeful Flinders Mines has lowered the development cost for its flagship Pilbara iron-ore project, in Western Australia.
A 2011 prefeasibility study estimated that the project would require A$488-million in capital to support a Stage 1 development of five-million tonnes a year.
A further capital investment of A$641-million would be required to increase production up to 15-million tonnes a year.
However, Flinders reported on Thursday that an independent investigation into the project had revealed that capital expenditure of only A$726-million would be required to support a 25-million-tonne-a-year operation.
The new capital estimate included A$384-million for processing plant and infrastructure, a further A$177-million for site infrastructure, A$131-million for construction costs and A$34-million for mine site works, pre-strip, road and tailings.
Flinders was expected to refine the cost estimate for the Pilbara iron-ore project during the bankable feasibility study, which was currently under way. The study would investigate a build-own-operate scenario to remove large capital items from the balance sheet.