FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV: FPX | OTCQB: FPOCF) has announced results from its preliminary feasibility study (PFS) for its Baptiste nickel project in British Columbia, Canada. The study gives the project an after-tax net present value (NPV) at an 8% discount of US$2.01B and the after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) using a nickel price of US$8.75/lb. is 18.6%.
“The PFS firmly establishes Baptiste as a key strategic asset in the development of Canada’s critical minerals supply chain,” said Martin Turenne, FPX’s president and CEO.
“Despite the inflationary pressures observed in the mining industry in recent years, the study has yielded after-tax NPV and IRR superior to those observed in the 2020 preliminary economic assessment, reflecting greater engineering maturity and incorporating the several optimizations identified by our class-leading project team in regard to resource modelling, mine planning, process recovery, and site design.”
The Baptiste deposit is part of the Decar project, of which the company intends to develop a high-margin, long-life, large-scale, and low-carbon mine. It will produce a 60% nickel concentrate for direct feed into the stainless-steel industry. The project could also produce battery-grade nickel sulphate, cobalt precipitate, and copper concentrates products with additional refining.
The base case PFS outlines an open pit mine producing 59,100t of nickel annually in concentrate over a 29-year mine life. Conventional open pit development will occur in phases beginning with an initial milling rate of 108Kt/d. Mill capacity will grow to 162Kt/d in the second phase funded from free cash flow after the after-tax payback period of 3.7 years.
The mill flowsheet will be conventional, using SAG milling followed by magnetic separation, froth flotation, and a flotation tailings leach circuit. The tailings circuit will produce a mixed hydroxide precipitate.
Proven and probable reserves at the Baptist deposit total 1.5Bt averaging 0.21% Ni and containing 6.89Blbs Ni. The PFS puts the all-in sustaining cost per pound of nickel produced at US$4.17. During the first phase, the AISC is expected to be US$3.97 and during the second phase at US$4.23.
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