Business
Liberty Provides Scoping Study for the Hart Nickel Mine
Liberty Provides Scoping Study for the Hart Nickel Mine
About this update from Electric Metals Usa Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\nLiberty Provides Scoping Study for the Hart Nickel Mine\n\n\n Mar. 2, 2010 (Filing Services Canada) -- Liberty Mines Inc. (LBE - TSX), (\"Liberty or the Company\") is pleased to announce the results of a preliminary economic assessment completed by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. (\"SRK\") for the Hart nickel project near Timmins, Ontario. SRK estimates Hart's Potentially Mineable Tonnage at 1,729,100 tonnes at an average grade of 1.29 percent nickel (\"Ni\"). The estimation was based on a cut-off grade of 0.46 % Ni for the Alimak Raise mining method; a nickel price of US$15,430 per tonne (US$7.00 per pound); and an exchange rate of $1.00 CDN = $0.90 US. The Hart project is a multi-million pound intermediate nickel grade deposit that has excellent potential to increase the Mineable Tonnage.The life of mine (\"LoM\") for the Hart project is 4 1/2 years (38 months of production) at an average production rate of 1500 tonnes per day. Gary Nash, President and CEO of Liberty, commented:\"The SRK technical report for the Hart project is a comprehensive study including capital costs for water treatment facilities ($1.5 million), paste plant ($5 million) and a mono rail train for hauling ore and waste to surface ($15.837 million). The mono rail system is more cost effective than the construction of a shaft to mine below 500m. Above that level, traditional diesel trucking would save over $12 million of capital costs as Liberty can use its mine trucks from McWatters or Redstone and design the ramp at a 15% decline instead of 18% for the train.  We anticipate implementing the monorail system after exploration below 500m confirms the existence of deeper mineralization at Hart; similar to the deep mineralization found to 1150m at Redstone. Furthermore, the Hart project will use the existing mine water treatment facilities at McWatters at the cost of pump and a buried pipe over the 2.5km between the projects ($0.4 million) saving an additional $1.1 million of capital costs. The capital cost and LoM pre-tax cash flow stated below are therefore subject to an approximate $13.1 million adjustment (decrease and increase, respectively) if the deposit is only mined to 500m\".The project economics include:* LoM net smelter revenue based on plant feed of 1,729,100 tonnes at 1.29% Ni is estimated at $246 million;* Underground operating costs ar...