Champion Iron Ltd has announced that its subsidiary Québec Iron Ore Inc (QIO), the operator of the Bloom Lake mining complex, has received commitments from its current credit facility syndicate members to amend and increase its existing credit facilities from $200 million to $400 million. Concurrently with this commitment, the company’s Board of Directors has provided final approval to complete the Bloom Lake Phase II expansion project, which aims to double the nameplate capacity of Bloom Lake to 15 Mt/y of high-grade iron ore concentrate.
The company expects to fully fund the Phase II project with the additional proceeds from the amended credit facility, its $425.8 million cash on hand and ongoing cash flows from operations.
“Today’s announcement is a major milestone for our company, our employees and the local communities”, commented David Cataford, Champion’s CEO. “With our high-grade iron ore in rising demand globally, a proven operational team and a conservative financial solution to fund the remaining construction of the Phase II project, our company is well positioned to double Bloom Lake’s nameplate capacity. We are also proud and excited to build on our positive impact to the region with the expected creation of approximately 375 permanent new jobs upon the completion of the Phase II project.”
With the Phase II project already benefitting from substantial capital investments, and pursuant to the strong economics outlined in the Phase II Feasibility Study filed on August 2, 2019, the company’s Board, to date, has approved a cumulative budget of $120 million in order to advance and de-risk the project. To further advance the Phase II construction ahead of the anticipated closing of the amended credit facility, the Board approved an additional $75 million budget.The Phase II project has a current estimated completion timeline of 18 months.
The 2019 FS states: “The operation consists of a conventional surface mining method using an owner mining approach with electric hydraulic shovels, wheel loaders and mine trucks, with 14 m benches and 311 mm diameter blastholes. The study consists of resizing the open pit based on parameters outlined in this chapter and producing a 20-year lifeofmine (LOM) plan to feed two plants at a nominal rate of 41.9 Mt/y.” Mining of the Bloom Lake Phase II project is planned with six phases with a starter phase, intermediary phase and a final pushback in both the Chief’s Peak and West pits.
The final pit contains 807 Mt of ore at an average grade of 29.0% Fe with an average strip ratio of 0.88:1. This mineral reserve is sufficient for a 20-year mine life. The Chief’s Peak pit contains 67% of the ore and has higher levels of contaminants than the West pit. The strip ratio of the Chief’s Peak pit (0.68:1) as a whole is lower than the West pit (1.28:1).
A total of 706 Mt of waste material is mined throughout the life of mine. Available capacity from the start of the project isapproximately 156 Mt and is sufficient for the first five years of the mine life. There are three dump locationsplanned in the first five years, one to the north and two to the south. The north dump is an extension of the existing dump and is 90 m high. The waste storage facility located in Lac-Triangle has 70 Mt of capacity at 140m high. The southwest contingency storage area will be required to satisfy the first five years of waste. It has a planned capacity of 30Mt and a height of 100 m.
The initial ex-pit mining rate is 57 Mt/y and gradually increases until it reaches a mining rate between 91 Mt/y and 99 Mt/y starting in Year 4. The mining rate declines, starting in Year 15, as sufficient ore for the mill is accessible. Stockpiling occurs during the mine life and mainly serves to control the level of contaminants in the mill feed. The concentrate production averages 15 Mt/y over the 20-year LOM. The concentrate, at 66.2% iron, is obtained with a combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 metallurgical recovery that averages 82.4% over the same period.
Equipment wise there are currently two Bucyrus 49HR electric drive and one Caterpillar MD6640. Future drill additions will be required and are planned as the same class of drill up to a total of seven units. The majority of the loading in the pit will be done by four electric drive hydraulic face shovels equipped with a 28 m3 bucket. The shovels are matched with a fleet of 218 t payload capacity mine trucks. The existing truck fleet consists of seven Caterpillar 793D and three Caterpillar 793F mechanical drive trucks. The Phase II truck fleet will reach a maximum of 34 units in Year 13 and remains at this level until Year 15 before it starts decreasing as a result of a drop in mining rate.
The project already owns three Caterpillar 6060 electric drive hydraulic front shovels and will acquire an additional same class of machine. The hydraulic shovels will be complemented by four production front-end wheel loaders (FEL). The site already owns two Komatsu WA1200 and one LeTourneau 1850. The 28 m3 shovel is expected to achieve a loading rate of 3,776 t/h based on a 4-pass match with the mine trucks and an average load and spot time of 3.4 minutes.
The fleet management system on site is by Modular Mining. A provision has been included to install dispatch and provision on new fleet additions. The shovels are equipped with the Modular ProVision system, which is a high precision global positioning system (GPS). This system improves the productivity and bench grade control, and can be integrated with the mine planning software. The production drills are also equipped with the high precision ProVision system. This system helps guide rigs into position and assures holes are drilled to the correct depth and location.
An overland conveyor currently transports the crushed ore over a distance of 3.45 km before discharging in the crushed ore stockpile. Its original design capacity of 6,000 t/h is sufficient for the operation of Phases 1 and 2 with the average throughput considered of 2,500 t/h and 2,650 t/h respectively.
The Bloom Lake concentrator will see its production double to 15 Mt/y. The Phase 2 separation circuit developed is, as in Phase 1, a multi-stage circuit comprised of spirals (rougher, cleaner, scavenger and middlings (mids) stages), UCCs, LIMS and WHIMS, designed to remove gangue material, mostly silica, from haematite and magnetite to achieve the desired 82.5% iron recovery, with a key difference being the inclusion of up-current classifiers in the scavenger stage. The combination of various pieces of separation equipment in the different stages of the separation circuit is meant to maximise iron recovery while maintaining silica grade control.