Positive Feasibility Study
The results of a December 2005 feasibility study, prepared by Bateman Minerals and Metals, indicated a 47 year project life with nickel production peaking at an annual 23,700t contained in 109,000t of ferronickel. The process flow route selected includes a Polysius AerofallTM mill, a PolcalTM calciner and a Polysius SepolTM dynamic cyclone separator feeding a direct current (DC) arc furnace which has been shown to be well suited as one option to process the Shevchenko ores. The overall plant was designed to operate at a feed capacity of just over 2Mt of calcined ore per year.
The feasibility study was carried out by Bateman Minerals and Metals (South Africa) as the lead contractor with consultancy support from Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) (UK), Mintek (South Africa) and Polysius (part of the ThyssenKrupp group of companies, Germany) for the resource modeling, mining plan and environmental studies, smelting technology and ore pre-treatment processing aspects respectively.
- 47 year project operating life
- Nickel production in first 10 years peaks at an annual 23,765t nickel in 109,000t of ferronickel after an 18 month ramp up period
- NI 43-101 compliant Proven and Probable nickel laterite ore reserves of 104.4 million tonnes at 0.79% nickel
- Capital direct field cost for process plant, infrastructure and mine of $448 million and $594 million including indirect field costs, EPCM, insurances and owner’s costs
- Average operating costs of $1.91/lb Ni for initial 10 years and $2.12/lb Ni for the first 25 years. Industry average cash cost is $3.42/lb Ni
- 25 year project NPV (at 8% discount rate) is $275 million and $328 million for full 47 year project life with IRR’s of 13.55% and 13.82% respectively, pre-tax at $4.25/lb nickel price (current price over $8.50/lb)
