Nordic Mining, through its wholly owned subsidiary Nordic Rutile AS, has entered into letters of intent with Sunnfjord Industripartner AS, Åsen & Øvrelid AS, Nordic Bulk AS, and Normatic AS as partners for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Engebø rutile and garnet project in Norway.
The LOIs are a formalisation of the EPCs deliverables toward the update of the Engebø definitive feasibility study (UDFS), and in line with the optimised contracting and execution strategy developed to ensure the successful construction of the project, the company said.
Sunnfjord Industripartner is a company founded to compete on larger contracts for industry and communication development projects, Åsen & Øvrelid is one of the largest civil and building contractor on the west coast of Norway, Nordic Bulk designs, manufactures and installs plants for processing and handling of bulk material within the mining and quarrying industry, and Normatic is a significant provider of control systems, instrumentation, electrical cabinets, electrical systems and SCADA systems.
The LOIs comprise lump sum EPC contracts covering around 70% of the total plant and mine capital expenditure of $203.4 million. The parties plan to formalise the final EPC contracts by early in the September quarter.
In preparation for construction, Nordic Mining says it will, together with its selected project management consultant and the selected EPC partners, immediately start pre-construction work related to setting up the project management organisational structures and systems and selected detailed engineering activities.
A January 2020 feasibility study on Engebø envisaged an optimised mining plan and scheduling to support an initial 42-year mine life and a 1.5 Mt/y run of mine operation. This would see 15 years of open-pit mining and high-grade processing, and stockpiling of medium/low-grade ore, 19 years underground production, eight years of production with no mining costs based on stockpiled ore, and further project life extension possibilities based on the inferred resources.
Project Manager, Kenneth Nakken Angedal, said: “We are pleased to sign the agreements with the EPCs supporting the project in the update of the definitive feasibility study and, by that, moving the Engebø rutile and garnet project towards execution. Our focus has been to partner with companies on what they are best at, and that have the experience to support in construction and operations, which will support creating value for the region in many years going forward.”
