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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nikole Wollerstein who wrote (5223)	1/24/2006 5:25:03 AM
From: jrhana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78417

Yes they will do a feasibility study (I believe concentrating on the zinc side of their property) which could well prove the prelude to a buy out. <The development of a solvent extraction reagent that is specific for zinc will revolutionize the zinc industry, as the process, Solvent Extraction Electro-Winning (SXEW), did for oxide copper production 25 to 30 years ago. The solvent extraction process consists of leaching the oxide zinc ore with sulfuric acid producing an acidic solution containing zinc and other soluble metals, the leach solution. The leach solution is mixed with the organic extraction solution, which selectively removes and concentrates zinc from the leach solution into the organic extraction solution. The extraction solution is taken to electrolytic reduction cells where SHG zinc (99.995%) is produced. SXEW produces a refined zinc product at the mine site. The first production test of the Solvent Extraction Electro-Winning process for zinc will be the Anglo American Skorpion deposit, located in Namibia, Africa, which is presently under construction, with production forecast for midyear 2002. Anglo's feasibility study cash cost of producing refined zinc by SXEW is $0.25 per pound, a 30% advantage over the rest of the zinc industry which produce zinc from a sulfide concentrate through the smelter process at a cost of $0.35 per pound. This new technological advance will make Skorpion the world low cost zinc producer Sierra Mojada will have competitive advantages over Skorpion because of lower infrastructure development costs and the synergies offered by Penoles from their existing operations. These synergies are, the required acid is available at Penoles' MetMex complex in Torreon (250 km, 150 miles, by railroad), Penoles has electric power sufficient for their operations and the requirements of Sierra Mojada and high voltage power is available at Hercules (80 km, 48 miles), Penoles jointly owns and is the operator of the Coahuila Durango Railroad and consequently acid and other required materials for the mine and extraction plant can be transported by rail at reduced cost over truck transport, lower labor cost and other lower operating costs than Skorpion due to its remote location and hostile environment, Skorpion being located on the edge of the Namib Desert. Anglo must build 1100 km (660 miles) of power line and add electrical capacity to the Namibia grid, build roads, build a sulfur acid plant and port development to import sulfur for the acid plant. Anglo's feasibility study capital cost is $450 million Sierra Mojada is one of the few known oxide zinc deposits in the world capable of developing the required threshold reserve of 2 million metric tons of contained zinc metal necessary to justify the estimated $250 million capital investment of a mine and extraction plant with an annual production of 180,000 metric tons of zinc metal. The cash cost for producing zinc at Sierra Mojada could be as low as $0.20 per pound. Sierra Mojada could be one of the world's largest zinc mines and one of the lowest cost producers and possibly the lowest cost producer> metalin.com