PERATING expenses at Carabella Resources’ proposed Grosvenor West project in Queensland would be internationally competitive with low-cost overburden removal by using a bucket-wheel excavator and a contract mining model.
Grosvenor West Coke after cooling. Courtesy of Carabella Resources.
Up-front capital expenditure would be substantially reduced by making it a contractor operation, which would also lead to enhanced funding potential, according to the company’s latest presentation.
Carabella predicts that by using the contractor and bucket-wheel excavator option, the project would cost $500 million instead of $905 million with an owner-operator model.
Cash operating costs would be $110 per tonne FOB under the contractor scenario, versus 93/t FOB with the owner-operator model.
Grosvenor West has an estimated mine life of 18 years and a mineable resource of up to 90Mt. First coal is predicted for 2016 and full production 2018.
It is predicted to have ROM Production of 5.5Mtpa with a total yield of 70% and saleable production of 3.8Mtpa.
The product mix from Grosvenor West would be two-thirds premium hard coking coal and one-third export thermal coal, the company said.
“The coke strength ranks among the highest in the world,” Carabella said.
“It will be keenly sought after by end users and will sell at or near benchmark prices.”
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