BajaNews - 1-20-2006 at 03:03 AM
http://www.bnamericas.com/story.jsp?sector=7¬icia=341...
January 19, 2006
Vancouver's Baja Mining (TSX-V: BAJ) aims to start production in 2008 at its El Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc mine project in Mexico's Baja California Sur
state.
"Hopefully early-2008, but it could be the latter part. It really depends on how quickly we get the construction financing into place," Baja CEO John
Greenslade told BNamericas.
The company retained mining industry financial consultants Endeavour Financial of Canada last year to assist in raising the US$292mn needed to cover
the capital costs of mine construction, Greenslade said.
The idea is to reduce the time gap between completion of the feasibility study and arranging financing, "so that we can go relatively quickly,
directly into construction of the mine." Construction would take 18 months.
A definitive feasibility study is expected to end in late-June or mid-July, following metallurgical testing and a pilot plant designed to assess
recoveries of copper, cobalt, zinc and manganese by processing 20-30t of material, Greenslade said.
The four-month metallurgical process involves a series of tests ending in a month-long trial at the pilot plant, and will begin once test mining at
the El Boleo site wraps up at the end of February.
The feasibility study will contemplate an underground, 2.6Mt/y mining operation yielding some 50,000t/y of copper cathode, 1,600-2,100t/y of
high-purity cobalt cathode and some 23,000t of zinc sulfate, which Baja would sell to the fertilizer market.
Operating costs are estimated at US$19.90/t.
For an additional US$11mn in capex, El Boleo also could produce 80,000-140,000t/y of manganese carbonate, which is used by the fertilizer and chemical
markets and for metal.
"We are looking at the markets for the manganese carbonate to see how much we could sell annually and what the revenue would be before making a final
decision," said Greenslade.
Can we assume......
Hook - 1-23-2006 at 10:37 AM
....that this article is about the mining in the Santa Rosalia area?
David K - 1-23-2006 at 10:46 AM
Yes, that is the El Boleo copper mine... and manganese of more recent years... in Santa Rosalia.