Marathon Receives Optimized Definitive Feasibility Study - Significantly Improved Economics -
TORONTO, Nov. 24 /CNW/ - Marathon PGM Corporation ("Marathon" or "the Company", MAR-TSX) received the optimized Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") covering its 100% owned Marathon PGM-Cu Project (the "Project"), located 10 km north of Marathon, Ontario. A summary of the DFS will be filed on SEDAR and posted on the Company's website upon receipt from Micon International Limited ("Micon"), within 45 days of this press release.
"The economics of the Marathon Project have been significantly improved due to a combination of factors. Improved metallurgical recoveries, increased reserves, a much improved mine plan and overall CAPEX reduction totaling C$92 million are the key drivers in this improvement," said Phillip Walford, Marathon's President and CEO. "The PGM metallurgy jumped by 3% for Pd, 7% for Pt and 7% for Au, which has improved the economics of the project as a whole and lead to additional reserves. The new mine plan has a higher efficiency which reduced the amount of mining equipment required. This superior set of economics sets the stage for our next phase of developing the Marathon Project. Everyone involved in the revision has given considerable effort in improving the feasibility study."
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Summary highlights of the DFS are: Base Case
(3 year trailing average)
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Undiscounted cash flow (pre-tax) C$847 million
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Undiscounted cash flow (after tax) C$596 million
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NPV @ 6% (after tax) C$251 million
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IRR (pre-tax) 21%
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IRR (after tax) 17%
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Payback period 4.4 years
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Proven and probable reserves contained
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Copper 497,233,000 lb
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PGM+Au 3,392,000 oz
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Silver 4,235,000 oz
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Average annual metal production 1st 5 years
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Copper 37 million lbs
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PGM+Au 234,000 oz
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Silver 182,000 oz
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Cash cost per PGM+Au oz (net of credits)
life of mine Negative US$14.40/oz
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Cash cost per Cu lb (net of credits) life of mine Negative US$0.25/lb
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The DFS examined the economics of developing and mining the Marathon PGM-Cu Project, a large polymetallic deposit in Northern Ontario, at a rate of 22,000 tpd. The project will produce a single concentrate containing copper, platinum, palladium, gold and silver.
Presented below are three different economic cases and metal price forecasts, used in the study.
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Base Case (3 Yr Bank Variable 5 Year Trailing
Tr Prices)(1) Forecast(2) Prices(3)
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Undiscounted cash flow
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Pre-tax C$847 million C$816 million C$637 million
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After tax C$597 million C$577 million C$453 million
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Net present value
@ 6% discount rate
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Pre-tax C$383 million C$373 million C$259 million
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After tax C$251 million C$245 million C$164 million
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Average annual cash
flow (pre tax) C$74 million C$71 million C$55 million
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Internal rate of return
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Pre-tax 21% 21% 17%
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After tax 17% 18% 14%
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Capital investment
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Pre-production C$351 million C$351 million C$351 million
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Life-of-mine C$495 million C$495 million C$495 million
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Payback period 4.4 years 4.2 years 5.2 years
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Cash costs, net of
credits
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Per PGM+Au oz Negative US$14.4 US$124 US$21.4
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Per lb copper Negative US$0.25 Negative US$0.96 US$0.00
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1. Base Case - Three Year Trailing Price, as of October 31, 2009: US
$2.91/lb Cu; US$321/oz Pd; US$1,347/oz Pt; US$819/oz Au, US$14.10/oz
Ag, US$/C$ exchange rate = 1.099.
2. Variable Forecast as at November 2009: US$2.50/lb Cu in 2013, US
$2.00/lb Cu Long Term (LT), US$400/oz Pd LT, US$1,750/oz Pt LT, US
$900/oz Au LT, US$13.00/oz Ag and US$/C$ exchange rate =
1.10 from Bloomberg
3. Five Year Price Trailing Prices, as of October 31, 2009: US$2.63/lb
Cu; US$293/oz Pd; US$1,206/oz Pt; US$695/oz Au, US$12.04/oz Ag, US$/C
$ exchange rate = 1.131.
The DFS was managed and compiled by Micon and reserve estimates, mine design, scheduling and mine costing with support by Met-Chem Canada Inc. for process engineering and costing of the process and infrastructure and AMEC for the design and costing of the process solids (tailings) management systems. The DFS cost estimates are considered to be of an accuracy of +/-15%.
The DFS included modeling of an optimized engineered open pit design that resulted in a proven and probable mineral reserve estimate of 91 million tonnes containing 497 million pounds of copper and 3.394 million ounces of PGM and gold.
Mineral Reserve Estimate
Mineral reserves were based on a Whittle based open pit optimization and subsequent mine design, undertaken by Micon using the measured and indicated mineral resources, which were estimated by Micon and reported by Marathon in a press release dated October 9, 2008. The optimal pit shell produced by the Whittle software was used as a guideline for the design of the engineered pit. These final reserves have been modified slightly as a result of final mine plan changes. The table below shows the reserve statement for the Marathon deposit:
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Pd Pt Au Cu Ag
Classification Tonnes (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (g/t)
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Proven 76,461,000 0.910 0.254 0.090 0.268 1.464
Probable 14,986,000 0.435 0.147 0.060 0.138 1.318
Total 91,447,000 0.832 0.237 0.085 0.247 1.440
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Cu lbs Pd Ozs Pt Ozs Au Ozs Ag Ozs
Classification (X1M) (000's) (000's) (000's) (000's)
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Proven 452 2,237 625 222 3,600
Probable 46 209 71 29 635
Total 497 2,447 696 251 4,235
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Open pit mining reserves were developed under the direction of Sam Shoemaker Jr., MAusIMM of Micon. Mr. Shoemaker is a Qualified Person ("QP") within the context of NI43-101.
The DFS base case demonstrates that the Marathon PGM-Cu Project generates strong cash flow under appropriate metal price assumptions. There is excellent potential to expand the resource and reserve base of the project by further exploration on the Company's extensive land position in the Marathon area and will add to mine life.
The two largest areas for adding resources are located immediately outside the Marathon designed pit and at the 100% owned Geordie Lake Deposit, located 14 km west of Marathon. Large blocks of PGM-Cu extend well beyond the current Marathon designed pit. These blocks were not included in the reserves due to economic constraints, but may represent future mining potential in later stages of mining. In addition, there are several known PGM-Cu mineralized zones on strike from the Marathon deposit that have not been fully explored.
The Geordie Lake Deposit has an existing measured and indicated resource of 25.99 mt grading 0.55 g/t Pd, 0.03 g/t Pt, 0.05 g/t Au, 0.35% Cu and 2.35 g/t Ag representing 456,800 oz Pd, 28,400 oz Pt, 45,800 oz Au, 195.7M lb Cu and 1,938,400 oz Ag. Mineralization at Geordie Lake is open down dip and to the north and south, which bodes well for open pit mining potential. The potential for additional PGM-Cu zones is high.
Location
The Marathon PGM-Cu Project is located 10 km north of Marathon, Ontario. The deposit is easily accessible from the Trans Canada Highway and is also close to the CP railway. Electrical power is easily accessible with the deposit being located within 1km from two spurs of OPG's electrical power grid. The region also benefits from a strong contractor and supplier base to the mining industry and an experienced mining workforce.
Capital Investment Program
The initial capital investment program amounts to C$351.1 million and is summarized below.
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C$ million
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Processing plant and infrastructure 261.7
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Tailings and water management 8.7
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Owner's cost 7.2
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Pre-strip and other mining 24.3
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Contingencies 49.5
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Total Pre-production capital 351.1
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Life-of-mine CAPEX including Total Pre-production capital
(net of salvage)(1) 494.6
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(1) Includes $120.8 million in Mining equipment that would be leased
assuming 10% down payment and financing of the balance over 5 years
at 9% p/a.
These updated pre-production and life of mine capital estimates are C$35 million and C$92 million lower than the 2008 Feasibility Study estimates, respectively. The main differences are lower plant equipment costs, removal of the process solids (tailings) thickening system, lower cost option for the process solids disposal management system and reduced mining capital due to a new mine design and schedule.
There are two solids disposal options for the Marathon Project. Both are technically and environmentally viable and will be presented in the NI 43-101 report and in permitting documents. The option used in the base case is the lowest cost of the two. The other option will cost C$50 million more over the life of the mine and will reduce the NPV of the base case to C$211 million.
Mining
The Marathon PGM Deposit will be mined utilizing conventional open pit mining equipment and practices with a total fleet of fourteen 228 tonne capacity haul trucks, two 27 m(3) diesel-hydraulic shovels, four production drills, a pre-shear drill and one 25 m3 wheel loader, and various ancillary equipment to support the mining operations, to be acquired over four years on a lease/purchase plan.
The open pit will operate on a year round basis and provide ore feed to an on-site processing plant and low-grade ore stockpile. The feed rate to the processing plant is designed to be 22,000 tpd ore. The pit will require the removal of a total of 3.6 mt of overburden and a total of 259.9 mt of waste rock (total 263.5 mt) over a mine life of 11.5 years. The overall waste tonnes to ore tonnes stripping ratio is estimated to be 2.88:1. The pit design includes inter-ramp pit slope angles that range from 48 to 55 degrees with the majority at 55 degrees.
The waste rock storage facility has been designed to hold the life-of-mine waste rock production and has a storage volume of 114 million m3 with a footprint area of 241 hectares.
Mineral Processing
The plant design comprises a sulphide flotation facility with a nominal throughput capacity of 22,000 tpd (8 mt per annum) based on 90% plant availability. Metallurgical recoveries are estimated at 90.8% for Cu, 71.0% for Pt, 80.1% for Pd, 79.9% for Au and 74.5% for Ag.
The process flowsheet and design criteria are based on extensive metallurgical testwork programs that were conducted at various laboratories, including SGS Lakefield located in Lakefield, Ontario and Xstrata Process Support based in Falconbridge, Ontario. The process includes primary and secondary crushing using conventional crushers, tertiary crushing using high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR), ball milling, conventional flotation and concentrate dewatering. Approximately 90,000 tonnes per year of a single bulk concentrate containing copper and high values of PGM, gold and silver will be shipped to a third party smelter.
Operating Costs
Total on-site cash operating costs are estimated at C$13.39 per tonne milled. Estimated average life-of-mine unit operating costs per tonne of ore processed are C$5.67/t for mining, C$6.85/t for processing and C$0.87/t for general and administration. The cost of mining ore and waste is C$1.48 per tonne.
Financing and Cash Resources
As at September 30, 2009, Marathon had $11.2 million in its treasury. The Company is examining a variety of different methods of securing the required funding to develop the Marathon Deposit, including joint ventures, royalty arrangements, project equity and debt instruments.
Technical Report
A NI 43-101 F1 Technical Report summarizing the DFS will be filed within 45 days on SEDAR and posted on the Company's website upon receipt from Micon.
Qualified Person
The revised Marathon DFS was prepared by Micon under the supervision of Richard Gowans, P.Eng., the independent QP. Mr. Gowans is President and Principal Metallurgist with Micon. Mr. Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon, is the Company's designated QP for the purpose of the DFS. Mr. Gowans and Mr. Walford have reviewed and approved the contents of this press release.
About Marathon PGM Corporation:
Marathon is exploring resource development potential in the immediate vicinity of the Marathon deposit to expand mine life of the planned large tonnage, open pit mining operation. The Marathon deposit is one of the largest PGM-Cu reserves in Canada and is expected to grow with development of additional nearby resources. Marathon's optimized P+P reserve contains 2.447 million ounces of Pd, 696,000 ounces of Pt, 251,000 ounces of Au, 497 million lbs of Cu and 4.235 million ounces of Ag. Marathon also has development and exploration stage properties in southeastern Manitoba and western Newfoundland, respectively. Marathon's management plans to build on its experience through the advancement of its properties and by examining other strategic opportunities.
Cautionary Notes Concerning Estimates of Mineral Resources
This news release uses the terms measured, indicated and inferred resources as a relative measure of the level of confidence in the resource estimates that occur separate from the quoted mineral reserves. Readers are cautioned that Marathon's mineral resources associated with the Geordie Lake Deposit are not economic mineral reserves and that the economic viability of resources that are not mineral reserves has not been demonstrated. In addition, inferred resources are considered too geologically speculative to have any economic considerations applied to them. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies or economic studies except for Preliminary Assessment as defined under NI 43-101. Readers are cautioned not to assume that that further work on mineral resources will lead to mineral reserves that can be mined economically.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon, certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "considers", "intends", "targets", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could". We provide forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about our current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those identified and reported in Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2008.
Other than as specifically required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results otherwise.
%SEDAR: 00020574E For further information: David Leng, P.Geo:. Tel: (416) 849-3432, Fax: (416) 861-1925,
dleng@marathonpgm.com
.