Random Feasibility Notes
posted on
Feb 04, 2013 01:37PM
CUU own 25% Schaft Creek: proven/probable min. reserves/940.8m tonnes = 0.27% copper, 0.19 g/t gold, 0.018% moly and 1.72 g/t silver containing: 5.6b lbs copper, 5.8m ounces gold, 363.5m lbs moly and 51.7m ounces silver; (Recoverable CuEq 0.46%)
1900 direct workers during construction
600 permanent workers during operation
• Teck review period completed: April 2013
• basic engineering and start ordering long lead items: June 2013
• financing period completed: April 2013
"The Project is strategically located to allow convenient delivery of copper concentrate to East Asian custom smelters, whose copper smelting capacity is the largest in the world."
"In addition to these market conditions, the high quality of Schaft Creek's copper concentrate should also work in the Project's favour. Given its purity, the copper concentrate of Schaft Creek should be acceptable to any of the potential receiving smelters and should in fact be considered top-grade."
"The presence of rhenium in molybdenite concentrate has been known for decades, but traditionally rhenium has not been considered saleable, even though it has sometimes been recovered... Schaft Creek should probably not assume any payment for rhenium at this stage, but the situation could change in the future. The recovery process for rhenium is complex and needs to be weighed against any potential profit."
"Three-dimensional modelling of acid base accounting (MDAG 2010b) predicted that waste rock from the Project will contain up to 5.1% net-acid-generating rock, by volume. Consequently, at this time, it does not appear that the Project will produce ARD."
pg 330 - note how the CuEq spikes at the end of the mine life
"A shorter project life could be achieved with a higher throughput rate, but starting up at a new mine at higher than 130,000 t/d is very rarely done due to the exposure to risk. The advantages of a large resource within a single mine permit, dilution of the fixed capital, and long term environmental impact are not reflected in a discount analysis."