The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has advised Rio Tinto (RTP-N, RIO-L, RIO-A) subsidiary Kennecott Eagle Minerals that it will announce its proposed approval of the Eagle nickel-copper mine in Marquette Cty., Mich.
Under Michigan law a proposed approval by the State goes out for a period of public consultation before the State issues a final decision on permitting a hard-rock mine. During the period, the State will also be considering public comments on permits for air and water discharges.
The permitting process, the first under Michigan’s new nonferrous-metal mining law, has delayed Eagle by about a year compared with original plans. Kennecott is now working to a late-2007 schedule to begin construction on the mine, with production planned in 2009. Eagle, discovered in 2002, is a massive to semi-massive magmatic sulphide deposit with an indicated resource of 3.6 million tonnes grading 3.8% nickel and 3% copper, with 0.8 gram platinum, 0.5 gram palladium and 0.3 gram gold per tonne.
Another 500,000 tonnes of inferred material grades 2.2% nickel and 2.2% copper plus 0.4 gram platinum and 0.3 gram palladium per tonne, and an inferred low-grade resource in the peridotite host rock contains 8.1 million tonnes grading 0.5% nickel and 0.4% copper. The peridotite resource has minor platinum-group-element credits.
Kennecott had no plans to build a mill at Eagle because permitting one in an area used heavily for recreation would have been overly difficult. Instead, it will have the ore custom-milled, probably at Xstrata’s (XTA-L) Kidd Creek operation in Timmins, Ont.
The project, which is budgeted at US$150 million, would mine 2,000 tonnes per day and employ about 120 people when in production. Kennecott’s plan was to develop via a decline and put limited surface facilities on top. Waste will all be returned to the mine as backfill.
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