The Shakespeare nickel-copper project west of Sudbury, Ont., has regulatory green lights for production and operator Ursa Major Minerals (UMJ-T) plans to start construction.
The Ontario environment ministry has delivered a water permit and two Certificates of Approval for the project, one for air emissions and the other for solid wastes. The mines ministry had approved the other major regulatory requirement, the mine’s closure plan, in September.
Ursa mined a bulk sample from the deposit’s West Zone in the late summer and early fall, which was processed at the Strathcona mill of Xstrata (XTA-L) in October. Strathcona milled 45,000 tonnes of material with head graades of 0.4% nickel and 0.46% copper. Another 5,000 tonnes of the bulk sample are being held for blending tests.
About 76% of the nickel and 89% of the copper were recovered into mill concentrates, a result that matched earlier metallurgical tests. Precious metal results on the milling test are pending.
The Shakespeare deposit has a reserve of 11.2 million tonnes at average grades of 0.33% nickel, 0.35% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.33 gram platinum, 0.37 gram palladium, and 0.19 gram gold per tonne. A feasibility study in 2006 put the capital cost of a mine and mill at $118.5 million, to produce 4,500 tonnes per day over a mine life of slightly less than seven years.
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