Sydney, Nov 24, 2005 (ABN Newswire) - Tectonic Resources NL (ASX: TTL) announce the completion of the feasibility study on the Phillips River Gold Project.
The culmination of this work has led to a decision to proceed with the project. The feasibility study is based around a mine plan involving the excavation of some 8 open pits, comprising 7 from the Kundip area and one at the Trilogy area, followed thereafter by three underground mines at Kundip.
The project is to commence with an initial anticipated life span of 5 years. This comprises an 8 month construction period for pre stripping of open pits, infrastructure establishment and mill construction followed by an initial 4.25 year milling period.
The Directors believe this remains a conservative estimate in light of all Kundip orebodies remaining open at depth limited only by drilling at this point. Using assumed commodity prices of $600/ounce AUD for gold $10/ounce AUD for silver and $4,666/t AUD for copper the project is anticipated to generate $51million before tax and capital. Project capital of $28.5 million comprising $25 million for the processing plant and $3.5 for mine infrastructure will be required. This is based around an initial mining inventory made up of a mix of 80% measured and indicated and 20% inferred resource. This yields a production profile over the project life of 1.5 million tonnes at an average head grade of 5.7g/t Au, 14g/t Ag and 0.7% Cu. Annual rates of production are estimated to be 500,000tpa in the initial open pit mining phase processing the softer oxide ores, followed thereafter by a reduction in throughput to 300,000 tonnes per annum, when the operation makes the transition into underground mining treating harder primary ores.
Metal production during the initial project life is anticipated to comprise
Year 1 48,000 ozs gold 350,000 ozs silver
Year 2 47,000 ozs gold 131,000 ozs silver 1,950 t copper in con.
Year 3 70,000 ozs gold 42,000 ozs silver 2,400 t copper in con.
Year 4 80,000 ozs gold 52,000 ozs silver 17,000 t copper in con.
Year 5 (1 QTR) 6,400 ozs gold 14,000 ozs silver 73 t copper
Project commencement remains subject to statutory approval which is well advanced with a positive decision anticipated in the New Year, with various funding options being currently explored.
