Forsys Metals Corp starts feasibility study for Namibia flagship
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian project developer Forsys Metals on Monday said it had engaged engineering and project management firm Amec to start a feasibility study for its 100% owned and permitted Norasa uranium project, located in Namibia.
The Toronto-based firm had also appointed SGS South Africa to complete further metallurgical studies, which would include pilot plant testwork.
The Norasa project spans a 35 km strike to the Rössing uranium mine, which has been in production for over 30 years and is majority-owned by multinational diversified mining major Rio Tinto. The project is also 50 km north of the Langer Heinrich uranium mine, owned by ASX-listed Paladin Energy.
The Norasa project comprises the Valencia main and satellite pits and Namibplaas deposits, billed as potentially being one of the next biggest uranium-producing mines in the near future.
The feasibility study would also include the input of other specialist consultants for certain aspects of the study, including an update of the pit designs, tailings handling systems and bulk water and power supply. Some technical aspects have already been completed to a level suitable for the feasibility study, including the resource model and pit geotechnical designs.
"The start of the feasibility study is the next important milestone in the development of the Norasa project. The study will consolidate all accumulated project mine and technical data. We are very pleased to have assembled such a competent technical team being lead by Amec. We are targeting quarter one of 2015 for completion of the study,” Forsys CEO Marcel Hilmer said.
The feasibility study would also formulate an engineered construction and operating plan regarding social, environmental and water management, additional permitting, geotechnical engineering, metallurgical testing, process design and mine planning.
Forsys had in 2008 completed an environmental-impact assessment, after which it was granted an environmental clearance certificate by the Environment and Tourism Ministry to cover all activities associated with the construction, operation and closure of the Valencia mine, the flagship deposit at Norasa. This work would now be expanded and updated to accommodate the larger Norasa project.
Forsys in March published an updated technical report for Norasa, which underpinned management’s decision to start the feasibility study.
The estimated measured and indicated resource for Norasa is 237-million tons at a grade of 197 parts per million (ppm) triuranium octoxide (U3O8), for 103-million pounds of U3O8. The total proven and probable Norasa reserves totalled 177-million tonnes at a grade of 202 ppm, for 79-million pounds of U3O8.
The Norasa project supports a 13-year mine life at the proposed production rate, which is 2 305 t/y.
Construction of the Valencia mine is set to start in early 2015, while plant commissioning is expected to be under way by mid-2016. Mining at Norasa will start in early 2016 to prepare pit benches and open mining faces.
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