Name of the Project
Citronen zinc/lead project.

Location
The project is located in Greenland.

Project Owner/s
Ironbark Zinc.

Project Description
Ironbark committed to undertake a comprehensive revision of the Citronen feasibility study in early 2020 to ensure that it reflected the significant advance in technologies and changes in pricing that have occurred since the original study was completed in 2017.

The newly optimised Citronen mine plan considerably derisks the mining operation in several key areas, as well as significantly improves the project economics and overall understanding of the way/s in which the orebody will be optimally mined, with respect to future optionality in the event of an increasing zinc price.

The optimised plan has reaffirmed that the orebody supports a 3.3-million-tonne-a-year throughput rate, mined from a combined underground and openpit operation over a 14-year life-of-mine. To further decrease risk and embrace the highest possible standards of safety, underground access to the main orebodies is now proposed to be through twin declines.

While increasing the initial development costs, this approach has substantially improved subsequent mining productivity and considerably enhanced safety standards. The cut-and-fill mining method has been optimised to follow the contours of the orebody mineralisation more closely to increase metal recovery and reduce mining dilution. These changes have materially improved metal recovery in the first six years of run-rate production, with an additional 90 000 t of zinc metal being extracted over that time.

The merits of a smaller one-million-tonne-a-year operation were also explored in the optimisation study, but the trade-off between fixed costs to establish the site, compared with overall metal recovery and lower operating costs once built, determined that the larger run rate was more appropriate for the project.

The company has confirmed that all material assumptions underpinning production targets or forecast financial information derived from a production target continue to apply and have not materially changed.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $1.03-billion and an internal rate of return of 36%.

Capital Expenditure
The project has an estimated capital cost of $514.21-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Ironbark remains committed to its strategy of completing the refreshing of all key elements of the previous feasibility study work ahead of pursuing a project investment decision.

Work is under way on updating the metallurgical flowsheet, logistics, project execution, communications and power generation.

It is expected that all study streams will be finalised by the first quarter of 2021.

Ironbark remains fully funded through to the completion of this programme and management continues to undertake preparatory discussions with several potential counterparties to facilitate the future development step.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Mining Plus (mine plan optimisation).

Contact Details for Project Information
Ironbark Zinc, tel +61 8 6461 6350 or email admin@ironbark.gl.