DISCOVERY Nickel has completed a preliminary mining assessment of its Maun copper project in Botswana indicating a 3 million tonne per annum operation would cost in the order of $US62 million ($A82 million) to get off the ground.
Discovery Nickel managing director Jeremy Read
Compiled by Snowden Mining, the assessment investigated the potential of an openpit and a subsequent underground operation or a combined openpit/underground operation at Maun, which has an inferred resource of 20.1Mt at 1.2% copper.
Snowden concluded at a $1.50 per pound copper price, the project requires an average mineralisation grade of 1.2% to support an openpit operation, while an underground operation requires an average grade of 1.5%.
Net present value of a 3 million tonne per annum operation comes in at $224 million with an average grade of 1.5% and a copper price of $1.50/lb, with NPV increasing to $341 million at a copper price of $2/lb.
Copper closed at $3.38/lb on the London Metal Exchange overnight.
Snowden's assessment also investigated the potential for a 2Mtpa operation and the potential for a heap leach operation, although the study indicated processing of the copper-silver via a flotation process would produce a higher economic return.
MiningNews.net was unable to reach Discovery Nickel managing director Jeremy Read for further comment.
On the exploration front, Discovery Nickel said five holes of a 30 holes infill an extension diamond drill campaign have been completed and the company is confident the defined resources will "significantly increase" following its completion.
Shares in Discovery Nickel gained A2c (7.3%) during morning trade to 29.5c, capitalising the company at $24 million.
DNL Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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