Tag Archives: Ausenco

Ausenco to lead First Cobalt refinery restart study

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First Cobalt Corp, following a finance agreement with Glencore, has started to award key contracts to complete a 55 t/d feasibility study on the proposed expansion of its cobalt refinery.

Field work is expected to commence in September and will culminate in the delivery of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) in the March quarter, the company said.

Ausenco Engineering Canada will lead the preparation of a DFS for a refinery restart at 55 t/d with SGS carrying out advanced metallurgical test work on cobalt hydroxide and a specialty cobalt feed to be supplied by Glencore, Knight Piésold conducting tailings studies in support of the DFS, Story Environmental taking on the environmental and permitting aspects of the engineering studies and Glencore providing technical support throughout the study phase through its Sudbury-based affiliate, XPS – Expert Process Solutions.

In addition to the delivery of the DFS on a 55 t/d refinery restart, a prefeasibility study (PFS) on a 12 t/d interim operating scenario will also be conducted.

First Cobalt recently announced it had entered into a $5 million loan facility with Glencore to complete advanced engineering, metallurgical testing, field work and permitting associated with a recommissioning and expansion of the refinery. Upon completion of a positive DFS for the expansion, and subject to certain other terms and conditions, Glencore is prepared to advance an additional $40 million to recommission and expand the refinery, according to First Cobalt.

Trent Mell, First Cobalt President & CEO, said: “The First Cobalt Refinery is a permitted facility that is in excellent condition and has a recent operating history. Our strategy is to work with Glencore to expand the refinery to serve the growing needs of the North American electric vehicle market. To that end, we have partnered with a first-rate study team appropriate for the importance of the task at hand.”

First Cobalt edges closer to refinery restart after signing Glencore term sheet

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First Cobalt Corp says it has agreed on a term sheet with Glencore that could see the First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario, Canada, recommissioned as early as next year.

The agreement outlines a non-dilutive, fully funded, phased approach to recommissioning the refinery remains subject to several conditions, First Cobalt said.

The First Cobalt Refinery is a hydrometallurgical cobalt refinery in the Canadian Cobalt Camp, a cluster that was historically mined for primarily silver, but is now being evaluated for cobalt. It is the only permitted primary cobalt refinery in North America, according to the company.

Phase 1 of this term sheet entails a $5 million loan from Glencore to support additional metallurgical testing, engineering, cost estimating, field work, and permitting associated with the recommissioning of the refinery. Within this amount is funding for a definitive feasibility study for a 55 t/d refinery expansion.

Phase 2 envisions commissioning the refinery at a feed rate of 12 t/d in 2020 to produce a battery-grade cobalt sulphate for prequalification for the electric vehicle supply chain, while Phase 3 involves an expansion of the refinery to a 55 t/d rate by 2021. This uses the current site infrastructure and buildings, and was detailed in a previous report by Ausenco, which estimated that First Cobalt could produce 5,000 t/y of contained cobalt in sulphate assuming cobalt hydroxide feed grading 30% cobalt.

The total capital investment under the three phases is estimated at around $45 million, with Phases 2 and 3 remaining subject to the findings of the studies undertaken during Phase 1, First Cobalt clarified.

Trent Mell, First Cobalt President & Chief Executive Officer, said: “Transitioning to cash flow as a North American refiner is our primary focus and today’s news demonstrates that we are moving closer to achieving that objective. Glencore has been supportive throughout the process and we look forward to working closely with their technical team on a successful execution.

“This partnership will help First Cobalt achieve its stated objective of providing ethically-sourced battery-grade cobalt for the North American electric vehicle market. An operating refinery in North America can benefit all North American cobalt projects, as it significantly reduces the capital cost of putting a new mine into production.”

The framework follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the companies back in May.

First Cobalt will also enter into a services agreement with XPS – Expert Process Solutions, a Sudbury-based metallurgical consulting, technology and testing facility affiliated with Glencore, in order to provide technical support to the First Cobalt team. A tendering process is nearing completion to designate lead third-party firms to oversee advanced metallurgical testing, the feasibility study and permitting, First Cobalt said.

RNC Minerals studying trolley assist, automation at Dumont nickel-cobalt project

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The latest feasibility study on RNC Minerals’ jointly-owned Dumont nickel-cobalt asset in Quebec, Canada, has identified the potential for both electrification and automation of the open-pit haulage fleet at the project.

The DFS, completed by Ausenco, showed that initial nickel production at Dumont could come in at 33,000 t/y, before ramping up to 50,000 t/y in a phase two expansion. This would result in some 1.2 Mt of nickel in concentrate output over the 30-year life, with an initial capital expenditure estimate of $1 billion.

This initial investment would be paid back with a $920 million after-tax net present value (NPV, 8% discount) and 15.4% post-tax internal rate of return, factoring in a nickel price of $7.75/Ib (>$17,000/t) and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.75, the company said.

Dumont, as envisaged in the DFS, would use conventional drilling and blasting, with loading by a combination of hydraulic excavators and electric rope shovels into trucks ranging in size from 45 t to 290 t. The process plant will be constructed in two phases. Phase one will have an initial average throughput of 52,500 t/d using a single SAG mill and two ball mills for grinding, desliming using cyclones, conventional flotation and magnetic separation, to produce a nickel concentrate also containing cobalt and PGEs. Phase two throughput will be doubled to 105,000 t/d in year seven by mirroring the first line.

Around 42 Mt of overburden will be pre-stripped prior to start-up of operations. The life-of-mine plan excavates 2,100 Mt of material, including 1,000 Mt of ore, over an open-pit life of 24 years. After open-pit operations cease in year 24, 398 Mt of stockpiled ore will remain to support continued production through year 30.

One of the noticeable changes to the previous feasibility study from 2013 was the electrification of the fleet in the mine plan.

The company, which jointly owns Dumont with Arpent Inc, currently plans to increase the electrification of Dumont by incorporating trolley assist on the planned main ramps. RNC said this will reduce cycle times, and reduce diesel consumption by over 35% (approximate reduction of 450 million litres over the life of mine), which, in turn, will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1.2 Mt of CO2 equivalent, the company said.

And, among three “additional upside opportunities” listed in the DFS highlights was the use of haulage automation, which could potentially improve the NPV by some $75-115 million, the company estimated.

RNC said: “As autonomous equipment has been employed in open pits for over a decade and the global fleet currently approximates a combined 400 units of haul trucks and blasthole drills, automation is rapidly becoming proven technology.”

As a result, the company engaged an industry expert, Peck Tech Consulting, to assess the suitability of Dumont for automation.

“Based on Peck Tech’s prefeasibility-level assessment, the implementation of an Autonomous Haulage System could reduce the peak truck fleet by 20% and reduce site-wide all-in sustaining costs by over 3%,” RNC said.

“Further potential could be achieved with an Autonomous Drilling System (ADS),” the company added, saying it is continuing discussions with various mining equipment suppliers to understand the impacts and benefits in greater detail.

Filo del Sol copper-gold-silver blueprint includes autonomous haul truck fleet

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Filo Mining has released the results of a prefeasibility study, carried out by Ausenco, on its Filo del Sol copper-gold-silver project on the borders of Chile and Argentina.

The PFS envisages average annual production of approximately 67,000 t of copper, 159,000 oz of gold, and 8.65 Moz of silver at a C1 cost of $1.23/lb ($2,712/t) copper-equivalent.

It also contemplates the use of an autonomous haul truck fleet, which allows the company to take advantage of the technology’s proven productivity improvements and operating cost savings, Filo Mining said.

Filo Mining is the second development-focused company in the past few months to make plans to incorporate autonomous haulage from the off. In November, NGEx Resources said it assumed its Josemaría project in Chile would use the latest in autonomous haul truck technologies.

The Filo del Sol study contemplates open-pit mining, with conventional drilling, blasting and loading performed on 12 m benches and is based off an initial probable reserve of 259 Mt at 0.39% Cu, 0.33 g/t Au and 15 g/t Ag.

Pre-production capital was pegged at $1.27 billion (excluding costs prior to a construction decision) and the company estimated a 14-year mine life with copper cathode, gold-silver doré and a high-grade copper precipitate produced. Filo said the post-tax net present value (8% discount) was $1.28 billion at copper, gold and silver prices of $3.00/lb, $1,300/oz and $20/oz, respectively.

Filo del Sol hosts a high-sulphidation epithermal copper-gold-silver deposit associated with a large porphyry copper-gold system. The project is in the Andes Mountains on the border of Chile and Argentina, approximately 140 km southeast of the city of Copiapó.

From the open pit, ore would be trucked to a conventional two-stage crusher, designed to process 60,000 t/d of ore. Crushed ore would be treated by sequential heap leaching, to extract copper and subsequently gold and silver from the ore followed by hydrometallurgical processing to produce copper cathodes and gold-silver doré. A portion of the barren leach solution, following zinc precipitation, would be treated to avoid a build-up of recirculating copper and cyanide through the gold circuit. This treatment is based on the SART process, which produces a copper sulphide precipitate (with grades of around 65% Cu) and recovers cyanide for use in the heap leach.

Groundwater for the process plant would be supplied from nearby aquifers to the plant site, and power would come from a 127 km of power line construction to connect to the Chilean national grid.

The PFS was prepared and managed by Ausenco Engineering Canada, with input from AGP Mining Consultants, BGC Engineering, Knight Piésold, Advantage Geoservices Limited, Merlin Geosciences and SRK Consulting.