Would be one of the lowest cost and productive mines and eventually districts in the world, and the stock market attaches very little value (US$12m mkt cap)to it:
Manhattan Minerals Corp.: Tambogrande Project Update
Feasibility Study Results
Thursday September 12, 5:32 pm ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2002-- Manhattan Minerals Corp. (TSX:MAN - News) is pleased to provide results of the Feasibility Study being carried out by AMEC E&C Services Ltd. (AMEC).
The Feasibility Study as well as the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) that is being prepared by Klohn Crippen Consultants Ltd. are now in final draft form, and Management is reviewing both documents. These reports focus on the development of the TG-1 deposit, which is one of several deposits in the Company's' land package. Both documents are pre-requisites for the exercise of the option agreement with Centromin, and project approval.
Summary:
TG-1 Gold/Silver Operation:
Initial capital cost of US $ 180 million
Cash operating cost of US $ 83 per ounce of gold (net of silver credits)
Mining cost of US $1.12 per tonne
Processing cost of US $ 6.20 per tonne
TG-1 Copper/Zinc Operation:
Capital cost of US $ 145 million
Cash operating cost of US $0.49 per pound of copper (net of by-product credits)
Mining cost of US $ 0.90 per tonne
Processing cost of US $ 4.94 per tonne
These estimates are consistent with those provided at the pre-feasibility level, where capital costs were US $ 173 million and US $ 97 million respectively, although the copper/zinc operation will now be 25% larger.
The TG-1 gold/silver deposit will be mined at a rate of 7,500 tonnes per day, producing 260,000 ounces of gold and 3.2 million ounces of silver per year at a cash operating cost, after silver credit, of US $83 per ounce of gold. The life of this operation will be 3.5 years. The TG-1 gold/silver deposit completely blankets the underlying massive sulphide deposit and cash flow from the gold/silver deposit will facilitate mine expansion and construction of the copper/zinc plant. Metallurgical testing has been consistently good and indicates recoveries of 90% for gold and 62% for silver.
In the third year of operation a copper/zinc flotation plant will be commissioned and operated at 10,000 tonnes per day using one grinding line, and then expanded in the fourth year to 20,000 tonnes per day, after converting the grinding capacity of the gold/silver plant. Metallurgical results to date indicate that the deposit will produce up to 190 million pounds of copper and 90 million pounds of zinc annually. Cash operating costs will be US $0.49 per pound of copper, net of zinc and precious metals credits. The mine life of the base metals deposit is estimated to be nine years.
The project capital cost to complete the initial mine development for the gold/silver deposit, the process plant, and other infrastructure is US $180 million. This initial capital also includes the cost to resettle a portion of the town of Tambogrande to a new neighbourhood, immediately adjacent to, and north-northeast of the existing town. The capital cost for the additional mine equipment, the copper/zinc flotation plant and tailings pond expansion for the second phase of operation is US $145 million. Contingency has been included and averages 13% overall. These capital cost estimates exclude the general sales tax (18%), which is returned as a credit during operations.
Mining of the ore and waste for the gold/silver phase will be performed by a mining contractor, due to the need for generally smaller equipment coupled with a short mine life. As the Company expands to the longer life copper/zinc phase, we intend to purchase new and larger equipment and assume the operation of the mine. Mining costs inclusive of labour and materials are US $1.12 per tonne mined during the initial phase with a strip ratio of 2.6:1 waste:ore. During the second phase costs will be US $0.90 per tonne mined with a strip ratio of 1.1:1 waste :ore.
Processing costs will be US $6.20 per tonne for the gold/silver plant, and US $4.94 per tonne for the copper/zinc plant.
General and Administrative costs, for the TG-1 operation, will be US $1.55 and US $0.56 per tonne for the two phases respectively.
Mineable Reserves for the TG-1 open pit operation have been calculated by AMEC using the Mineral Resource model prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates Ltd. (March 7, 2002 press release) and are presented in the following table(1).
TG-1 Gold/Silver Deposit
Mineral Reserves:
Category: Probable
Tonnes: 8,179,000
Grade: Gold: 3.34 g/t
Silver: 58.7 g/t
Strip Ratio: 3.8 to 1 waste:ore (2.6 after pre-stripping)
In-pit Inferred Resources include 733,000 tonnes at 3.0 g/t Au and
49.7 g/t Ag.
TG-1 Copper/Zinc Deposit
Mineral Reserves:
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Ore Type Probable
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Tonnes Cu Zn Au Ag
'000 % % g/t g/t
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Type 1 14,695 2.1 0.1 0.6 23
Type 2 19,549 0.8 2.2 0.7 33
Type 3 23,590 1.7 0.4 0.4 19
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TOTAL 57,834 1.5 0.9 0.5 25
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Strip Ratio: 1.1 to 1 waste:ore
In-pit Inferred Resources include an additional 3,469,000 tonnes averaging 1.5% Cu and .6 % Zn, about half of which is the Type 3 material.
(1) The Mineral Reserves are reported according to the standards as defined by the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum, August 2000. |
