PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) into the Admiral Bay zinc project, in Western Australia, has confirmed that the project could support both a direct shipping ore (DSO) operation and a combined DSO and concentrate project.
“The PFS Stage 1 has delivered outstanding results for Admiral Bay and has de-risked the project in key areas that were identified from the scoping study and from discussions with potential joint venture partners,” ASX-listed Metalicity MD Matt Gauci said on Tuesday.
“Firstly, the company aimed to reduce the overall capital intensity of the project, which has given rise to a conceptually more capital efficient starter mine using the DSO concept and preliminary testwork has confirmed the viability.
“Secondly, preliminary geotechnical and hydrogeological assessment confirms the mining feasibility and the potential to significantly reduce operating costs given the mining methods contemplated.”
Gauci noted that metallurgical testwork studies undertaken as part of offtake agreement and preliminary assessments, also supported the view that Admiral Bay was an international saleable concentrate.
The PFS indicated that a standalone DSO operation would be feasible with the current project knowledge and testwork, while the combined DSO and concentrate model also preserved expansion optionality to a larger concentrate model and was feasible.
Metalicity will now undertake work on the Stage 2 PFS, including continued testwork to confirm the ore sorting rejection rates expected for DSO, additional resource drilling, evaluating the feasibility of a concentrator plant to increase the available tonnage to be mined post DSO, the staged expansion approach from 0.5-million tonnes a year to 3-million tonnes a year, and mine design aspects.