Letter to the Editor
I wish to compliment staff writer Susan Kirwin on her article in the June 7-13/07 issue of The Northern Miner on Strategic Resources Acquisition Corp. and our plans to restart the Middle Tennessee Zinc Mines in Gordonsville, Tenn.
The article had gone to press before we could respond (due to travel), but the information in the second paragraph is not quite accurate. Full production will actually be 147 million lbs. of zinc in concentrate — not zinc concentrate — per year.
Also, our risk is minimal in not undertaking a formal independent feasibility study. We are far beyond the quality of a feasibility study because we have 29 years of operating history to draw on. We are simply restarting the mine with the same mining methods, metallurgy, mill recovery, manpower and productivity as has been established in the past. We have contracted Dynatec to operate the mine and SRA consultants and Dynatec personnel have spent six months re-establishing the operating and capital costs and putting in place the mine rehabilitation and production plans. We will have the mine up and running before the end of the year, so there is no real risk in changing labour or material rates with time.
Our existing mine plan and budget is very tight and we consider it to be far superior to a feasibility study, where one is trying to predict operating and capital costs two or three years in the future.
John P. Thompson,
Vice-President of Resource Development, Strategic Resources Acquisition Corp.
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