TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Colt Resources on Wednesday announced the results of a preliminary economic study (PEA) on its Tabuaço tungsten project, in Portugal, which concluded that the project could be an economically feasible venture.
Using the National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated and measured resources released in October 2012, the PEA had placed a net present value, using a 5% discount, of $67.4-million on the project, as well as estimating an internal rate of return of 30.7%.
Consulting engineers SRK Consulting undertook the PEA, which covers the São Pedro das Águias (Tabuaço) tungsten deposit and the nearby Aveleira tungsten deposit, both located within the company's 45 km2 Tabuaço experimental mining licence.
The mine would cost about $86.8-million to construct and operating costs over the operation’s 12-year life are expected to total $244.6-million.
Over the mine’s life, the company would unearth about 3.55-million tonnes of ore grading 0.39% tungsten trioxide (WO3), and processing would recover about 90.25% of the contained WO3.
Colt said it was confident of the potential to increase resources through regional exploration, which would be of critical benefit to the future mining operation.
The company intended to develop an adit to the orebody to determine the geotechnical and mining conditions and to take a bulk sample for metallurgical testwork.
Work to complete the processing flow sheets was still under way and needed optimisation. The study analysed several options that would be further evaluated and finalised.
Meanwhile, Colt would perform additional geotechnical investigations designed to determine the ground support requirements, and environmental work was ongoing to reduce the impact of the project.
“While initiating the feasibility study, Colt's next phase of work will include upgrading the inferred resources to indicated resources and identifying additional resources in close proximity to the known deposits,” Colt president and CEO Nikolas Perrault said.