PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Bauxite developer Metro Mining has submitted the environmental-impact statement (EIS) for its proposed Bauxite Hills project, in Cape York, to the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.
Once the state government approved the EIS, the document would be put on public display for a period of 30 days.
Metro CEO Simon Finnis said on Monday that the company had engaged some of the industry’s best consultants to assess the Bauxite Hills project, and given the care that had been invested in the project design, Metro was confident that all relevant environmental issues had been identified and adequately addressed.
Metro recently released a prefeasibility study on an expanded production scenario at Bauxite Hills, increasing expected production from two-million to four-million tonnes a year.
The study estimated that the project would have a mine life of 13 years, with an after-tax net present value of A$582-million and an internal rate of return of 156%, while capital costs had been estimated at A$40.1-million.
A definitive feasibility study on the project was expected in mid-2016.