Name of the Project
Orokolo Bay industrial sands project.

Location
The project is located in Papua New Guinea.

Project Owner/s
Mayur Resources.

Project Description
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the project has reinforced its status as a simple, low capital expenditure and financially robust project with multiple product revenue streams.

The project aims to establish a five-million-tonne-a-year mining and processing operation.

The project will produce several products, including vanadium titano-magnetite, dense-media separation (DMS) magnetite, construction sands and a zircon-rich valuable heavy mineral concentrate. The mine will produce 400 000 t/y of vanadium titano-magnetite, magnetite for DMS of 100 000 t/y, zircon concentrate of 8 000 t/y and one-million tonnes a year of silica construction sands.

The project will be completed in two phases.

Phase 1 will provide all the capability and infrastructure for a trial phase.

Phase 1 will enable Mayur to extract and beneficiate 100 000 t of vanadium titano-magnetite for use in smelting trials in China. The processing methodology for Phase 1 is constrained to a single module containing the wet magnetic beneficiation circuit to provide the required tonnages for the trials.

Phase 2 entails the installation of the entire suite of beneficiation circuits – spirals, wet high-intensity magnetic separators, up-current classification, shaking tables and DMS production, as well as the extension of the Phase 1 capability.

The proposed processing circuit involves delivery of the run-of-mine ore to one of two relocatable 2.5-million-tonne-a-year concentrators by front-end loader or haul trucks, where the material will be fed through a vibrating screen to remove organic and oversized material, followed by desliming and two-stage ore upgrading.

The project has an estimated 15-year mine life.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated post-tax (real) net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $131-million and an internal rate of return of 103.7%, with a payback of 1.1 years from the start of operations.

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at $20.48-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Pilot plant construction and commissioning is expected by the second quarter of 2021, depending on Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Pilot plant operations and commercial-scale product trial shipments will start from the second quarter of 2021.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Siecap (DFS lead and study management); Groundworks Plus (resource and reserve estimation, and mine planning and design); IHC Robbins/ CRL (metallurgical testwork); CRTH / Siecap (plant design); Siecap (barging system design and financial modelling and evaluation); Coffey/Tim Omundsen; and Social Environmental & Research Consultancy/Tim Omundsen (social studies).

Contact Details for Project Information
Mayur Resources, tel +61 7 3157 4400.