POM-From Greg McCoach:
The geological resource at the NorthMet deposit is
a staggering 900 million tons containing 2.9 million
tons of copper, 0.78 million tons Nickel, 2.6 million
ounces of Platinum and 9.3 million ounces of Palladium.
The Gold, Silver, and Cobalt that come along with the deposit are a bonus. At current metals prices this deposit is worth billions!!!
The other major key to opening the way for PolyMet is
the patented process for extracting all the various metals
from the host rock called “The PlatSol” process.
Originally, there was no way of effectively breaking all
these minerals out of the rock, which is another reason
the project sat for so long. However, in May of 2000,
PolyMet demonstrated a continuous, fully integrated
pilot plant-testing program which proved the PlatSol
process could effectively work. The operating conditions
of the PlatSol Process are such that copper, nickel,
cobalt, and precious metals are all placed in solution in
a single operation. Since this original PlatSol test work,
the process has evolved and test work on other deposits
of this kind has demonstrated much improved recoveries
of the metals contained in the host rock. The
PlatSol process is environmentally friendly, and has
many advantages over conventional smelting. The
management team plans to produce LME grade copper
cathode metal on site. The other metals concentrates
will be shipped off-site to custom refiners. These
process simplifications (compared to the original prefeasibility
study) and the planned use of a contract miner
for an initial daily production of 25,000 tons per day of
ore are estimated to bring capital costs well under
US$250 million. Management believes that this level
of capital can be readily financed and is the right size
to commence operations with a clear ability to increase
production in modules of 25,000 tons per day after the
initial start up, to a maximum capacity of 100,000 tons
per day. PolyMet has a specific mine plan in place as
to how the PlatSol process will be used in starting production
at 25,000 to 30,000 tons per day. The chart
below shows the potential revenue of the plant based
upon 25,000 tpd and 100,000 tpd.
As you can see, these numbers are significant !
M I N I N G S T O C K F O C U S B R I E F
WWW. M I N I N G S P E C U L AT O R . C O M
METAL ANNUAL ‘LME’ VALUE ANNUAL
PRODUCTION CASH FLOW
Copper 33,000 tonnes/year $2,100 per tonne $69,300,000
Palladium 75,000 ounces/year $200 per ounce $15,000,000
Platinum 28,000 ounces/year $800 per ounce $22,400,000
Nickel 7,500 tonnes/year $13,000 per tonne 97,500,000
Cobalt 375 tonnes/year $33,000 per tonne $12,375,000
Gold 17,000 ounces/year $400 per ounce $6,800,000
Total Annual Cash Flow @ 25,000 tons per day - Approx. $US 223,000,000
Total Annual Cash Flow @ 100,000 tons per day - Approx. $US 860,000,000
polymetmining.com
Page 37 forward of this slide presentation shows similar metallurgy extraction process utilized by POM in use for other companies. May even use Copper Electrowinning
CuSO4+ H2O = Cu + O2(gas) similar to Skorpion???:
polymetmining.com |
