Orvana Minerals Corp. (the "Company") provides an update on the Copperwood Project, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA.
The Company has now obtained all major permits for the Copperwood Project. The Company completed a review by an independent third party engineering firm of the NI 43-101 compliant Feasibility Study on the Copperwood Project dated March 21, 2012 "Feasibility Study". As a result of recommendations from this review, the Company has been pursuing certain optimization studies with a particular focus on metallurgical testing and underground optimization. The Company is also in the process of completing an independent concentrate marketing study.
Additional metallurgical testing of broader, more representative samples of the Copperwood deposit have been confirming initial recovery and concentrate quality results. As well, ongoing testing is investigating the possibility of the increase in recovery and concentrate quality by optimizing grind size. This could result in improved metal production and reduced transportation costs.
Further geotechnical studies have indicated that the underground mining Feasibility Study assumptions were overly conservative. This is expected to result in lower operating costs and higher mining productivity.
Initial work on the concentrate marketing study has indicated that concentrate treatment and refining charges ("TC/RCs") are expected to be higher than the estimates contained in the Feasibility Study which projected TC/RCs to remain near the then prevailing all-time low levels. These charges will vary as a result of current market conditions.
In addition, initial work on the marketing study has indicated that transportation costs will be significantly higher than the $25 per tonne estimate contained in the Feasibility Study with a low end of the range of approximately $100 per tonne if the smelter(s) are in North America and a high end of the range of approximately $200 per tonne if the smelter(s) are in Europe or Asia. While external parties have expressed interest in off-take agreements, no agreements have yet been finalized pending financing and a final construction decision.
Work will continue to update performance assumptions and financial analysis on the Copperwood Project while Orvana Minerals pursues various options to capture value from this project.
About Orvana
Orvana Minerals is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's primary asset is the El Valle/Boinás-Carlés gold-copper Mine in northern Spain. Orvana also owns and operates the Don Mario Mine in Bolivia, processing its copper-gold-silver Upper Mineralized Zone deposit. Orvana is also advancing its Copperwood copper project in Michigan, USA. Additional information is available at Orvana's website.
Source: http://www.orvana.com/