A resource estimate based on drilling in 2004 by
Consulting firm Geostat provided the calculation, which was audited by Watts Griffis and McOuat. It showed an indicated resource of 1 billion tonnes at 30% iron (27.8% recoverable in standard Davis tube magnetic-separation tests). Another 761 million tonnes grading 30% (25.7% recoverable) is classed as an inferred resource.
New Millennium had hoped to establish a 20-year resource at Lab Mag, which is in the Howells River area — about 30 km west of Schefferville, Que., but on the Newfoundland side of the provincial border. The 1-billion-tonne resource allows for a 30-year mine life at an annual production rate of 10 million tonnes of iron oxide pellets.
More drilling is planned for this year, both to test other areas of the property and to upgrade existing resources into measured and indicated categories. Metallurgical testing is also planned, to allow for future feasibility studies of a 33-million-tonne-per-year mine, producing a concentrate that would be sent by pipeline to Sept-les, Que., and pelletized there.
New Millennium holds an 80% interest in the project, and the Naskapi First Nation of Kawawachikamach holds the balance.
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