Earlier in the month, General Moly announced its 80%-owned subsidiary Eureka Moly, LLC had received $100 mil-lion in contributory payments from its 20% joint venture partner POS-Minerals Corp. Eureka Moly is the operating company that is developing the Mt. Hope project. POS-Minerals is a subsidiary of Korean steel producer POSCO.

General Moly CEO Bruce D. Hansen said, “We continue to target spring 2013 for receipt of China Development Bank funding. This coincides with the terrain at Mt. Hope being adequately thawed to initi-ate heavy construction. In the weeks ahead, we will start light construction activ-ities better suited to the winter, including early well-field development, clearing and grubbing, and the continuation of our cul-tural clearance efforts as we prepare for heavy construction in the spring.”

The Mt. Hope project completed the per-mitting process required for construction in November 2012 when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (USBM) issued the Record of Decision (ROD) authorizing devel-opment of the project and the State of Nevada Division of Environmental Pro-tection (NDEP) issued the project’s recla-mation and water pollution control permits.

The USBM’s ROD approved the Plan of Operations for construction and operation of the Mt. Hope mining and processing facilities and also granted the rights-of-way for a 230-kV power transmission line.

The NDEP reclamation permit was issued on the basis of a site-specific appli-cation detailing the reclamation methods to be used to return the land to safe and stable conditions and a productive post-mining land use. The permit also approved the reclamation cost estimate of approxi-mately $73 million and established bond-ing requirements based on this estimate.

The water pollution control permit was issued on the basis of a site-specific permit application that demonstrated that the pro-posed facility will meet Nevada regulations regarding design criteria for containment of process fluids. The permit will also approve the operational and closure plans for the Mt. Hope mine and will establish monitor-ing requirements.

Mt. Hope is a large-scale, high-grade molybdenum project located 23 mi north-west of Eureka, Nevada. The project has 1.3 billion lb of molybdenum in proven and probable reserves and an expected mine life of more than 40 years. Over the first five years of operations, the project is expected to produce approximately 40 mil-lion lb/y of molybdenum in concentrate.