I-Minerals Inc. announces that further to its press release of June 6, 2014 wherein the Company announced the results of a Pre-feasibility Study on its Bovill Kaolin project ($212 After Tax NPV6; 30.5% IRR) by SRK Consultants of Denver Colorado, I-Minerals has now started Feasibility level work and the associated permitting.
I-Minerals has commenced a bulk sample program that will result in a total of approximately 35 to 40 tons of material being extracted from six to eight sample sites on the Kelly's Hump and Middle Ridge portions of the Bovill Kaolin deposit. The sample sites were reviewed and confirmed by SRK based on their statistical modeling and will result in the most representative bulk samples of the Kelly's Hump and Middle Ridge deposits to date for the purposes of the Feasibility Study. Once completed the sample will first be shipped to Ginn Mineral Technology ("GMT") to perform wet screw classification and screen separation of the halloysite-kaolinite clay fraction from the quartz-K-spar sand fraction. The clay fraction is then separated into kaolinite and halloysite using hydrocylone, centrifuge, and differential flotation techniques to yield both standard and high purity halloysite products. This large scale pilot plant run will aid in the optimization of the plant processing.
The sand fraction is then sent from GMT to North Carolina State University's Minerals Research Laboratory ("MRL"). After tertiary grinding, the quartz and K-spar in the sand fraction are separated using standard wet flotation and dry rare earth magnetic separation techniques. The K-spar product has yielded results greater than 13% K2O. Employing up to three stage flotation, quartz purities with less than 200 PPM of total impurities have been produced without the use of any acid leaching techniques.
Based on an initial sample of 35 tons, I-Minerals expects to create about 10.5 tons of quartz, 4.5 tons of K-spar, 3.0 tons of halloysite and 3.25 tons of Kaolin. Beyond confirming the flow sheet and equipment required, the bulk sample will be indicative of the recoverable amounts of minerals contained in the Kelly's Hump area and provide representative product samples to prospective customers for testing as a means of firming up customer interest to the required feasibility levels.
In conjunction with HDR Engineering, Inc., meetings have been scheduled with the various state permitting agencies. Given the plant as currently designed does not discharge water and the targeted resources lie well away from any running water, permitting is expected to be similar to that the company has already received for the processing of the tailings and include only a detailed plan of operations and a Storm Water Prevention Plan. Meetings with the various state authorities were undertaken during the week of June 23. More detailed submissions are being compiled and submitted at a later date.
"The permitting we put in place for the production of the tailings sands is the same basic permitting platform we are looking to advance our larger Bovill Kaolin project," stated Thomas Conway , President and CEO of I-Minerals Inc. "We truly believe we have a unique opportunity at HelmerBovill as the project generates a very robust return and with no metals or other deleterious elements being returned to the tailings. Beyond being a clean, high yield operation it has low capital costs and most of the process equipment is essentially off-the-shelf. At the end of the day, our project has few peers that can offer the combination of return on investment with a streamlined permitting process-and all in a politically stable jurisdiction."
Source: http://www.imineralsinc.com