PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore junior Magnum Mining & Exploration will evaluate stockpiles at its Buena Vista project, in Nevada, as potential mill feed.
The company on Wednesday said that the stockpiles were estimated to hold between 411 000 t to 894 000 t at between 15% and 45% iron, exclusive of the existing indicated and inferred resource of 232-million tonnes, at 18.6% iron at Buena Vista.
“The stockpiles at Buena Vista potentially represent a quick win when the beneficiation plant is built. It will save considerable mining costs if they prove to be of sufficient grade to be economic,” said Magnum CEO Neil Goodman.
“Work to date indicates this may be the case although more work needs to be done to confirm bulk grades.”
Drilling is planned to fully characterise the stockpiles.
Magnum earlier this week released a scoping study for Buena Vista, which estimated that the project could produce 1.6-million tonnes a year of concentrate over a mine life of 25 years.
The scoping study estimated capital cost of between $182-million and $378-million and an operating cost of between $44/t and $90/t, with the internal rate of return ranging between 26% and 54%, and the net present value between $360-million and $745-million.