COPPER-NICKEL STUDY: Costs to top $1-B for Ferguson Lake project

NUNAVUT – The original preliminary economic assessment for the Ferguson Lake copper-nickel-cobalt project 160 km southwest of Baker Lake outlined economic potential, and so does the updated study, says owner Starfield Resources of Toronto. The project would have an undiscounted pre-tax cash flow of $4.48 billion over a 20-year mine life, or a pre-tax internal rate of return of 16.8% and a net present value of $1.06 billion at an 8% discount rate. Capital costs over the life of the mine are estimated to be $1.58 billion.

The company said it plans to develop a small open pit mine first at Ferguson Lake, and underground mining would begin the following year. There will be a mill built at the site, and a 285-km pipeline to carry slurry to a hydrometallurgical plant at Arviat. An overhead power line will also be built between the mine/mill and plant.

Average annual production will be 25.6 million lb of nickel, 41.6 million lb of copper, 2.9 million lb of cobalt and 850,000 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. Electricity for the metallurgical plant will be produced from steam generated as a result of burning the hydrogen sulphide gas generated from the first stage of leaching.

Starfield has developed a unique hydrometallurgical process to recover metals. Learn more at StarfieldRes.com.