Anvil to go ahead at Kinsevere

Anvil Mining (AVM-T, AVM-A) has approved a US$35 million stage one development of the Kinsevere copper and cobalt deposits on the heels of the completion of the feasibility study in early May 2006.

The project, which includes the Kinsevere Hill, Tshifufia and Tshifufiamashi deposits is situated 27-km northeast of Lubumbashi, the capital of the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In Toronto on May 26, the company’s shares were off roughly 1% to $8.35 on roughly 190,000 shares traded.

The joint venture company AMCK — in which Anvil owns a 70% interest — and Mining Company of Katanga — a local Congolese company — will develop the project in a phased approach similar to the process used to develop Anvil’s Dikulushi and Kulu mines in the DRC.

The company says stage one of development will see the construction of a crushing plant, a one million tonne per year heavy media separation (HMS) plant and an electric arc furnace (EAF), with a capacity to produce approximately 23 to 25,000 tonnes per year of “black copper” ingots grading 85% to 95% copper.

Completion of the first phase is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2007.

Also as part of the construction, the access road will be upgraded, and a 27 km power line — with additional capacity for the later construction of a solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) plant — will be built.

Anvil says it will finance the US$35 million construction out of its US$112 million in cash resources.

Looking down the road, the company plans to upgrade to an SX-EW plant in the second phase of development — which will be within two to three years the company says. The plant would be able to produce 30,000 tonnes per year of cathode copper.

When completed Kinsevere will be the company’s third mine development in the DRC since 2002.

Anvil’s president and chief executive, Bill Turner, pointed to the company’s having no debt, being unhedged and having two operating open pit copper mines, as factors putting Anvil in a position to “deliver” on the project.

And, Turner said in a press release, the company will continue to pursue other project expansions in its pipeline of projects in the DRC.

The company says Kinsevere will help it realize its goal of producing 100,000 tonnes of copper per year — a large proportion of which is expected to be cathode copper.

Highlights from the feasibility study include: probable reserves of 5.2 million tonnes at 3.9% copper and 0.12% cobalt; inferred resources of 2.6 million tonnes at 5.0% copper and 0.24% cobalt; total contained copper metal of 334,022 tonnes; strip ratio of 3 to 1 waste to ore; and an average operating cash cost during stage one of US85 per lb. of copper.