PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Sabre Resources will proceed with scoping and prefeasibility studies on its Sherlock Bay nickel/copper/cobalt project, in Western Australia.
The decision comes after a review and update of a mining study on the Sherlock Bay project was conducted, which provided Sabre with updated mining study costs and schedules, and gave the company confidence that the deposit had potential for future development.
The mining study was based on a conceptual openpit and underground mining operation, with the cost update based on the recently updated resource estimate. The underground cost update was based on the resource model and evaluation detailed in a 2005 mining study report.
Sabre told shareholders that while the details of the projected cash flows and costs of the mining study could not be released to the market, in order to comply with ASX listing rules, the results of the mining study and mining cost update have encouraged the company to proceed with further studies of processing options, and to update estimates for the capital and operating costs for the Sherlock Bay project.
Sherlock Bay, which Sabre acquired in January this year, is estimated to host a mineral resource of 24.6-million tonnes, grading 0.4% nickel, 0.09% copper and 0.02% cobalt.