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Rio Tinto plant offenbar Übernahme von Advanced Explorations Inc. (WKN: A0D8ZT) !
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Advanced Explorations releases PEA of Roche Bay
2009-06-10 09:38 ET - News Release
Mr. John Gingerich reports
ADVANCED EXPLORATIONS' CANADIAN MAGNETITE PROJECT INDICATES POTENTIAL US $2.76 BILLION NPV IN PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT
Advanced Explorations Inc. is providing positive economics from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Roche Bay magnetite project located on the east coast of the Melville Peninsula in Nunavut.
Highlights include:
Annual production of one million tonnes of high value 96 per cent;
98 per cent direct-reduced iron (DRI) nuggets;
Forecast sale value of $500 (U.S.) per tonne nugget, freight on board (FOB);
$750 (U.S.) per tonne nugget assuming 70 per cent of 2008 peak prices;
Operating expenditure (OPEX): $176 (U.S.) per tonne nugget;
Net present value (NPV) before taxes at a 10-per-cent discount rate;
$1.16-billion (U.S.) at $500 (U.S.) per tonne nugget;
$2.76-billion (U.S.) at $750 (U.S.) per tonne nugget;
Pretax internal rate of return (IRR);
24.4 per cent at $500 (U.S.) per tonne nugget;
39.5 per cent at $750 (U.S.) per tonne nugget;
Capital expenditure (CAPEX): $1.11-billion (U.S.);
- Project payback of approximately three to five years on base case assumptions;
Inferred resource of 357 million tonnes grading 28.1 per cent total iron at a 25-per-cent iron cut-off for the C zone only;
The historical and non-National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource of 700 million tonnes from the proximal A, B and D zones was not included in this report but is considered an excellent exploration target for future drill programs;
Three years of baseline environmental studies have been completed;
The project is located adjacent to a deep-water ocean harbour providing AEI with a wide range of efficient construction, development and shipping options.
John Gingerich, president and chief executive officer of AEI, commented: "We are extremely pleased that the PEA confirms that we have a very viable project with a projected operating cost less than half of current spot prices. It's a long-life project with massive upside and it's located in Canada; always a safe environment for investment. AEI believes that the PEA was completed to the highest standards using conservative estimates. Our base case forecast price is less than 50 per cent of the peak prices of 2008. The company sees potential for a stronger market recovery and growing demand for high-quality electric arc furnace product and believes prices of $750 per tonne are possible. Under this circumstance the economics of a NPV of $2.8-billion (U.S.) are exceptional. Additionally, the direct reduction process plants are modular and expandable in 500,000-tonne increments, while preliminary analysis suggests that expanding to 1.5 million tonnes per annum would provide even stronger economics. These scenarios will be studied during the definitive feasibility study."
Jim Excell, strategic adviser for project development, said, "Having built and operated a mine in the Canadian Arctic, this project has all the necessary elements to be a successful iron nugget mine in the Canadian North."
The PEA is based on the review of technical studies performed to this date and the AEI internal scoping study prepared by Dr. Florin Gheorghiu, PhD, Eng, AEI's vice-president of engineering and technology. The PEA also includes expert contributions including Golder Associates, EBA Engineering and GTX Consulting and was overall reviewed for its technical content by Met-Chem Canada under the direction of Alain Dorval, PEng. As the company's independent qualified person, Mr. Dorval has also reviewed the contents of this release. Garett Macdonald, MBA, PEng, of GTX Consulting Inc., contributed the mining section and the economic modelling, while Richard Hoos, MSc, of EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd., authored the environmental component to the report. The resource and geology sections were provided by Dr. Bill Shaw, PGeo, and Paul Palmer, PEng, PGeo, from Golder Associates, and are based upon AEI's most recent National Instrument 43-101 technical report which Golder Associates authored and filed on SEDAR on April 24, 2009. The selection of iron nuggets as a final product is based on the rigorous study of mineralogical, chemical and physical characteristics of Roche Bay magnetite ores, in relationship with enrichment process efficiency, investment cost of the project and steel market demand. The iron nugget, produced by the direct reduction of iron, is a high-quality product used as a feedstock in electric arc furnaces.
The incorporation of a direct reduction (DR) nugget process is expected to bring many strategic advantages to the Roche Bay magnetite project including:
Reasonable CAPEX and OPEX costs;
Iron nuggets are a higher-profit value-add product than blast furnace pellets or iron concentrates;
Low-cost non-metallurgical coal is used as a reduction agent;
High-thermal efficiency of the DR process -- the heat recovery from the DR exhaust gas will produce all the electricity required to power the Roche Bay site;
Environmentally responsible process -- very low CO2 and SO2 emissions.
The electric power required to produce the iron nuggets, estimated to be up to 30 megawatts, will be generated by a steam-based power plant. The steam will be produced by a recuperative heat exchanger placed on the exhaust gas circuit of the DR furnace. The highly energy-efficient DR process creates power at no additional cost for the project. Following electrical power generation, the remaining captured energy from the steam cooling will be used for the heating of industrial plant and camp buildings. An additional 10 megawatts of capacity is being considered for power supply to external customers.
Mr. Gingerich commented: "A project of this scale will provide the base for a wide range of economic and development options for the governments of Nunavut and Canada. The project has the resources to last over 50 years thus creating direct and indirect employment opportunities for the entire Melville Peninsula for many generations. It is an excellent fit with the social-economic strategy of both the federal and Nunavut governments providing a number of collaborative opportunities. With the possibility of an additional 10 megawatts of electricity available, power could be provided to both Hall Beach and Igloolik communities with still enough power available for new business initiatives or a northern naval port that would directly support Canada's claim of Arctic sovereignty."
The PEA is based on the following general assumptions:
The 20-year starter pit will commence on the C zone north;
The initial ore production rate is assumed to be 15,000 tonnes per day, or five million tonnes per year;
High-grade ore of 30 per cent iron outcropping on the surface is expected to create a very low initial waste-to-ore strip ratio of 0.5:1;
The C zone north open pit would be located 10 kilometres west by road haul to the stockpile and production facilities at Roche Bay;
Production, port and ship loading facilities would be located adjacent to the natural deep-water harbour within Roche Bay -- the shipping season for the current business model is 275 days a year;
Currency exchange rate $1 (Canadian) equals 85 U.S. cents.
Positive factors not considered in the PEA:
The PEA did not consider the cost reductions associated with off-site construction and on-site assembly;
Study did not consider the potential benefits from the co-development and sale of surplus power (up to 10 megawatts);
Report did not consider collaborative and support opportunities associated with both levels of government (site industrial park, and so on);
The PEA did not consider the possible Kyoto credit associated with the environmentally more responsible development/process.
For the past three years beginning in 2006, EBA has been retained to undertake the full range of appropriate environmental baseline studies needed for the preparation of the anticipated environmental assessment and regulatory documentation required to support regulatory approval of the project. Studies undertaken have addressed the following key environmental disciplines: vegetation and terrain; water quality and hydrology; freshwater and marine aquatic resources; terrestrial and marine wildlife resources (mammals and birds); archeological resources. Traditional knowledge and socio-economic studies will be undertaken as part of future programs. The PEA is preliminary in nature, and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the reserves development, production and economic forecasts on which this PEA is based will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources. The issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources, and the historical estimate should not be relied upon.
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