Bushveld to initiate prefeasibility study this month
A prefeasibility study on Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals’ Bushveld iron-ore project is expected to kick off this month, after a scoping study indicated a low-cost near-term initial development to production.
A scoping study on the Limpopo-based project revealed that an initial low capital expenditure (capex) of $125.8-million could bring the Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant 718-million-ton resource into first-phase cash flow.
The group aims to start production by 2016.
“We have chosen to adopt an initial low capex route to enable the company to reach production and cash flows in a shorter time horizon,” says Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo.
The iron-ore- and tin-focused minerals development company found that, based on five-million tons a year run-of-mine, producing 2.2-million tons of concentrate a year over 18 years, the future mine hosted attractive operating costs of $51/t with a payback period of two years.
“[The near-term production] can be leveraged to unlock the larger potential inherent in exploiting the deposit along strike and to lower depths, as well as pursuing downstream beneficiation opportunities,” says Mojapelo.
The project is also “well positioned” near existing infrastructure, including rail lines, electricity and water.
“The prefeasibility studies that are due to start in May will investigate these options further and we look forward to presenting the results in the first quarter of 2014,” Mojapelo adds.
The scoping study used only 12% of the current resource, which is based on only 5.5 km of a potential 18 km strike, with scope for selective high-grade mining. This underscores the scale-up opportunities of the project, the company states.
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