bcl: panguna still has mine life of 17 years

BCL: Panguna still has mine life of 17 years
BOUGAINVILLE Copper Limited (BCL) order of magnitude study indicated that to optimise returns at the Panguna copper mine in the autonomous region of Bougainville, a 50 million tonnes of ore of processing rate was needed.
This rate is similar to the rate prior to mine’s suspension.
“The resource used for this study will support a mine life of approximately 17 years.
“The capital cost is high at US$3.8 billion (K11.2 billion) but it has been assumed that most mine site facilities will need to be replaced,” BCL’s chairman Peter Taylor said on Monday during BCL’s AGM in Port Moresby.
He said the order of magnitude study supported economic mining and the potential for all on Bougainville to benefit from the economic activity it would generate, including local businesses, create direct and indirect employment and improving infrastructure and services.
“The project is also very dependent on a copper price in the range from US$1.50 (K4.41) to US$2.00 (K5.88) lb and gold at US$655 million (K1.926 billion) to 800 ounces.
“With these prices grades of 0.33% copper and 0.37 grams per tonne gold are feasible. At these grades the resource exceeds one billion tonnes.”