Bateman to design circuit
Vancouver-based
Bateman is known for designing and building processing plants but specializes in operating high-temperature autoclaves.
The conventional circuit at NorthMet will produce a bulk concentrate, and the metals will be extracted using PolyMet’s proprietary water-based pressure-oxidation leaching technology, known as PlatSol. The extraction technique allows copper to be recovered on-site, with nickel and cobalt washed off as a precipitate for toll refining.
Bateman started feasibility work on NorthMet in mid-July. Most of the design work will be done at Bateman’s facilities in Brisbane, Australia.
Production at NorthMet is expected to begin after environmental permitting is completed, in 2007.
The open-pit resource is pegged at 808 million tonnes containing 0.432% copper, 0.109% nickel, 0.116 gram per tonne platinum, 0.437 gram palladium, 0.061 gram gold, and 1.5 grams silver at a 4-to-1 stripping ratio.
Early studies estimated development costs of C$600 million, but PolyMet reduced those by almost 50% by acquiring a nearby mothballed steel plant and related rock crushing equipment from Cleveland-Cliffs. PolyMet paid the steel maker US$500,000 and 1 million shares.
The plant is 8 km from the deposit, and Cleveland-Cliffs has expressed interest in becoming plant operator, as well as contract miner.
Atlas Copco buys firm
Stockholm-based
Rotex generated US$10 million in revenue in 2003.
The acquisition is designed to provide Atlas Copco customers with a greater range of products for overburden drilling.
Rotex will be folded into Atlas Copco Craelius, a division within the company’s construction and mining technique business unit, based in Marsta, Sweden. Rotex General Manager Jorma Jarvela will keep his position.
Patrik Nolaker, president of Atlas Copco Craelius, says further acquisitions are to be expected.
So far this year, Atlas Copco has acquired U.S.-based Baker Hughes Mining Tools, the drilling division of Bermuda-based Ingersoll-Rand Co., and Spanish industrial rental firm Guimera.
In 2003, the Atlas Copco group of companies employed 26,000 people and generated US$6.1 billion in revenue.
Placer could take BioteQ to DR
BioteQ recently completed small-scale laboratory tests for copper and zinc recovery at SGS Lakefield Research facilities in Ontario using a waste solution gleaned from Placer’s pilot program at Pueblo Viejo.
Lab results showed economic levels of copper and zinc can be recovered using a flowsheet similar to BioteQ’s Caribou plant in New Brunswick. The recovery process left only minute levels of copper, zinc, iron, arsenic and cadmium in the treated water.
Both companies will now begin large-scale testing using one of BioteQ’s mobile pilot plants at the SGS Lakefield plant, north of Peterborough, Ont.
At Placer’s Pueblo Viejo gold project, the BioSulphide metal-recovery process could be used to salvage copper and zinc from the metallurgical waste solutions that would normally be sent to a conventional limestone neutralization plant prior to disposal with the mill tailings.
Any metals recovered from waste solution would be shipped off-site and sold, to offset water treatment costs and minimize the quantity of metal stored in the tailings pond.
Placer is funding the BioteQ pilot plant operation and engineering work. BioteQ and Placer will complete engineering estimates for plant capital and operating costs.
Gold Reserve hires AATA
Spokane, Wash.-based
The study must meet the requirements set by the World Bank and other financial institutions.
“Completion of the study is an important step in arranging project financing,” says Gold Reserve President Douglas Belanger. “We are committed to the mitigation of environmental and social impacts of our project and look forward to the input of affected people.”
AATA will work with the Venezuelan engineering firm Ingenieria Caura in completing the study.
AATA has completed similar assessments for Overseas Private Investment Corp., and International Finance Corp.
Layne Christensen expands in Cali
Layne Christensen (layn-q) is set to do more California drilling after acquiring the assets of rival Beylik Drilling & Pump Service.
Beylik’s facilities in LaHabra and Barstow will be combined with Layne Christensen’s offices in Fontana and Woodland. As a result, the newly combined company becomes the second-largest water well driller in the U.S., with annual revenue of about US$200 million.
The California market accounts for more than a third of Kansas-based Layne Christensen’s water division earnings.
The acquisition will be financed through a drawdown of funds from Layne’s credit facility with Prudential Capital Group, as well as a series of recently issued debentures worth US$20 million.
Layne Christensen also provides drilling services for geological assessment and in situ mining and mineral exploration.
Be the first to comment on "Suppliers Roundup (October 11, 2004)"