Drilling on Wamangola Hill at African Eagle Resources' Dutwa nickel
project in Tanzania. (Photo courtesy of African Eagle)
African Eagle Advances Its Dutwa Nickel Project
African Eagle Resources has received an
updated economic model for its Dutwa
oxide nickel project in northern Tanzania
that evaluates both heap leaching and
atmospheric agitated tank leaching and
includes ore throughputs of up to 5 million
mt/y. Capital expenditure estimates are
$550 million for heap leach and $600 million for tank leach. Capital payback for both
methods is between three and five years.
Cash operating cost estimates are $3.37/lb
of nickel produced for tank leach and
$3.56/lb for heap leach. In all cases, the
model assumes production of a mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide intermediate product.
African Eagle Managing Director Mark
Parker said the economic modeling for
Dutwa indicates atmospheric tank leaching, rather than heap leaching, will give a
better economic return. Final selection of
the best process option will be based on
the outcome of bench-scale and pilot-
scale metallurgical test work now under
way. A pre-feasibility study is scheduled
for completion by the end of the third
quarter of 2011.
Over the coming months, the Dutwa
economic model will be further developed
and refined to take into account the results
of the current metallurgical test work and
to assess the impact of
producing a mixed sulphide intermediate product rather than a hydroxide and of using rail transport rather than road. The
timeline for the project
calls for initiation of its
Environmental and Social
Impact Assessment and
completion a JORC indicated resource during the
second quarter of 2011;
completion of a prefeasibility study during the
third quarter of 2011;
completion of a definitive
feasibility study by the
end of 2012; project construction during 2013 and
2014; and first production in early 2015.
The Dutwa project is
based on two deposits
that form caps on the tops
of low ridges 6 km apart.
Together, the deposits
contain around 850,000
mt of nickel with by-product cobalt.
As featured in Womp 2011 Vol 03 - www.womp-int.com