AMN - DRC: Simple underground operation for Bisie

Alphamin Resources has reported on the results of its Feasibility Study for its 84.55% owned Bisie tin project in east central Democratic Republic of Congo. The study supports a technically simple underground mining operation with recovery of tin via gravity separation methods that offers low unit capital and operating costs, rapid payback and strong financial performance at metal prices of $14,800/tonnes tin.

CEO Boris Kamstra says: “Bisie is an ideal foundation on which to build a mining company, and act as a catalyst for the economic development of North Kivu. It is straightforward, financeable, resilient, and has tremendous opportunity to grow. We are delighted to have reached such an important milestone, and feel strongly that our development approach is ideally suited to the attributes of the ore body.”

-          Probable Mineral Reserves 3.04 million tonnes @ 3.76% Sn (at a 1.8% Sn cutoff grade)

-          Production 9000 tonnes/year over 10.5 year mine life

-          Initial CAPEX $119.2 million

-          NPV @ 15% (after tax) $84.7 million

-          IRR (after tax) 36.4%.

The economic highlights throughout this represent the 100% project valuation. Alphamin owns an effective 84.55% interest in the project.

Boris Kamstra says: “Bisie stands out in the world of tin development projects. With very high tin grades, excellent metallurgical recoveries, very low levels of deleterious materials in concentrate, an approved mining licence, modest capital requirements and low operating costs, our projected margins are healthy. In addition, the project has been designed to provide flexibility to scale up and take advantage of the potential to deliver additional tin metal from the known areas of mineralisation, as demonstrated by our exploration team’s efforts at Mpama North. The foundations for a profitable tin producer are in place today with a proven management team to lead us forward.”

The feasibility study supports an underground mine at the Mpama North orebody containing over 190,000 tonnes of tin from defined Mineral Resources. The process plant is designed to treat the run of mine material using proven gravity separation methods.

The proposed Bisie implementation plan is over a period of 18 months, with underground ore development and stoping starting 12 months before first production of tin in concentrate, which is anticipated in Q4 2018. The project requires an estimated initial capital expenditure of $119.3 million to support the construction of an access road, underground mine, process plant, tailings dam and associated facilities with a process capacity of 360,000 tonnes/year. The mine is estimated to produce on average 9000 tonnes/year of tin contained in concentrate over a 10.5 year mine life, with all-in operating costs of $8450/tonnes Sn.

http://alphaminresources.com

News courtesy of International Mining