Name of the Project
Elizabeth Creek copper/cobalt project.

Location
The project comprises three deposits, located about 135 km north of Port Augusta, in South Australia.

Project Owner/s
Coda Minerals.

Project Description
A scoping study has confirmed the potential of the project as financially robust and globally competitive.

The study is based on a nameplate 2.5-million-tonne-a-year mining and processing operation producing copper and cobalt as co-products, and zinc and silver as by-products.

The project will be undertaken in two phases.

Phase 1 will comprise about a year of copper/cobalt concentrate production to drive early cash flow.

Phase 2 will involve the construction of a hydrometallurgical plant using the Albion Process to produce an estimated 13 years of the higher-value saleable end-products copper cathode, battery-grade cobalt sulphate, zinc carbonate and silver doré.

Over the 14-year life-of-mine, the project will produce an estimated 317 000 t of copper and 14 400 t of cobalt.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% rate of return, of A$570-million and an internal rate of return of 26.5%, with a payback of 4.75 years.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 capital expenditure (capex) is estimated at A$277-million.

Phase 2 capex is estimated at A$320-million in Year 3, partly supported by cash flow from Phase 1.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The Coda Minerals board has approved the start of the next-stage prefeasibility work.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
CSA Global (peer review of financial model); Strategic Metallurgy (metallurgical testwork and flowsheet design); Core Metallurgy and Glencore Technology (Albion Process testwork); Mining Plus (underground mining and geotechnical/mining engineering, Emmie Bluff); Crystal Sun Consulting (openpit mining engineering, scheduling and infrastructure design); and Green Values Australia (heritage and environmental management).

Other consultants include Como Engineers (electrical engineering and system design); Ausenco (processing capex/operating expenditure review and recommendations); WSP Golder (tailings management); Rockwater (hydrogeology); Barron Environmental (environmental surveys); and Cartledge Mining and Geotechnics (Emmie Bluff geotechnical assessment).

Contact Details for Project Information
Coda Minerals, email info@codaminerals.com.