Overview
Stage | Preliminary Economic Assessment |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Mine Life | 28 years (as of Jan 1, 2019) |
Source:
p. 46
The Company has a 100% interest, subject to a 2% net smelter returns royalty (“NSR”) in the Property.
Contractors
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Summary:
The Hopes Advance area is unusual in that it is the only portion of the iron formation which strikes generally east-west. All other areas are dominated by strikes that range from north-northwest to north-south.
The bedding at Castle Mountain appears to form an open, upright anticline plunging shallowly to the southeast. However, fold closures in the otherwise relatively flat-lying rocks suggest complex folding and thrusting of the beds. Lean chert-magnetite iron formation is locally overlain by highergrade chert-magnetite-hematite iron formation. Historic bulk sample trenches apparently targeted this horizon. Beds in the chert-magnetite-hematite iron formation are up to several feet thick. The chert-magnetite-hematite iron formation is overlain by spotted chert-magnetite-silicate iron formation, which in turn is overlain by spotted chert-carbonate rock. Fibrous amphiboles were noted in the transition between the chert-magnetite-hematite-silicate iron formation and the overlying chert-carbonate rock.
At the Hopes Advance Castle Mountain iron formation is composed of a mixture of magnetite and hematite. Magnetite grains range in size from 60 µ to 125 µ in diameter. Locally, the iron formation appears to be higher grade and relatively coarser-grained than at the occurrences visited to the north.
At the Hopes Advance West Zone 4 iron deposit, the relative proportion of magnetite to hematite varies across and along strike in the chert-magnetite-hem ........
Summary:
The mining method selected for the Project consists of a conventional open pit, truck and shovel, drill and blast operation. Vegetation and topsoil will be stripped and stockpiled for future reclamation use. Overburden will then be stripped and hauled to the waste dumps. The mineralized material and waste rock will be mined with 10 m high benches, drilled, blasted and loaded into a fleet of haul trucks using diesel hydraulic shovels. The mineralized material will be hauled to the primary crushing facility and the waste rock will be hauled to either the waste dumps or to the tailings facility to be used as construction material. The haul truck selected for the project has a nominal payload of 292 tonnes and the hydraulic shovel has a bucket capacity of 29 m3.
It was decided that the PEA would be limited to the Castle Mountain, Iron Valley and Bay Zone F deposits. Each of these deposits has favourable economic effects (higher grade and lower stripping ratios than the other deposits) and they are also the three largest resource bases of the ten deposits.
Open pit designs and pushbacks were than completed for each of the three deposits based on the results of the pit optimization analysis. A total of 557 Mt of overburden and waste rock must be mined to access the resources with the pit designs resulting in a strip ratio of 0.81:1.
Source:
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Projected Production:
Commodity | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
Iron Ore
|
kt
| 10,000 | 262,400 |
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | |
Annual mining rate
| 50 Mt * |
Annual production capacity
| 10.1 Mt of iron ore concentrate * |
Annual processing capacity
| 26.5 Mt * |
Stripping / waste ratio
| 0.8 * |
Waste tonnes, LOM
| 556.8 Mt * |
Ore tonnes mined, LOM
| 684 Mt * |
Total tonnes mined, LOM
| 1,241 Mt * |
Tonnes milled, LOM
| 652.1 Mt * |
* According to 2019 study.
Reserves at November 20, 2019:
Cut-off grade 25% total Fe.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade |
Measured
|
774,241 kt
|
Iron
|
32.2 %
|
Indicated
|
613,796 kt
|
Iron
|
32 %
|
Measured & Indicated
|
1,388,037 kt
|
Iron
|
32.1 %
|
Inferred
|
222,188 kt
|
Iron
|
32.5 %
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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