PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Venturex Resources is readying to start a number of work streams at its Sulphur Springs copper/zinc project, in Western Australia, in a bid to advance the project to a final investment decision.
A 2018 definitive feasibility study estimated that the Sulphur Springs project would require a capital investment of A$169-million to develop a 1.25-million-tonne-a-year operation, producing some 65 000 t/y of 25% copper concentrate, and 75 000 t/y of 50% zinc concentrate over a mine life of more than ten years.
The junior said on Wednesday that given the significant increase in equity market interest since its A$58-million recapitalization plan was announced in February this year, the company has initiated a number of activities to ensure that all key critical path items, permitting and final engineering are completed over the coming months to facilitate a seamless transition to construction and development.
This would enable the company to move to a final investment decision and to start construction without delay, in order to take advantage of the strong base metal prices.
Critical path items scheduled for completion before the start of the wet season this year include the submission of a mining proposal and mine closure plan to the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, the submission of a works approval application to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, a front-end engineering design study, and construction of site access roads and geotechnical investigations on the tailings storage facility and detailed design of this facility.