I thought I'd add some narrative to the slides I posted:
Central to the business model is beneficiation because it brings deposits which were previously uneconomic due to their small size into the economic category. The reason for this is because the company can campaign the mining moving from one mine site to the next, beneficiating at the pit head, thereby increasing the grade of the ore by several multiples (0.7-0.9% Cu to 2.5%+ Cu). This is possible because the crushing and screening plant and the ore sorter are mobile pieces of equipment.
The beneficiated ore could then sustain transport costs to the central hub. A truck or road train would pick up only the high grade ore and take it to the central hub for processing. The waste which remains at the pit head gets pushed straight back into the pit reducing rehabilitation costs.
As you can probably understand, the uniqueness of this model is that Phoenix Copper doesn't need to cart half of South Australia to the hub to be processed and then bring back new fill to rehabilitate the mine sites. No one else operates using this model however I understand RIO are testing the same model using the same ore sorters, with the idea being to use the process for some of their operations like in Chile.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
Aksier.
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