Name of the Project
Butcherbird manganese project.

Location
The project is located 1 050 km North of Perth and 130 km south of Newman in the Southern Pilbara, in Western Australia.

Client
Montezuma Mining Company.

Project Description
A scoping study on the project has proved positive. The project comprises existing mineral resources of 180-million tonnes in the indicated and inferred categories.

The study was designed to focus on the openpit development and processing of the Yanneri Ridge mineral resource, which comprises inferred mineral resources of 48-million tonnes and indicated mineral resources of 22-million tonnes, of which only a portion of the mineral resource was used for the study.

Envisaged is a standard truck-and-shovel mining operation using a 100 t excavator, paired with 90 t rigid body dump trucks.

The Butcherbird processing plant has been designed to process run-of-mine (RoM) ore containing 12.3% manganese as oxides, with leach extractions of 95% for manganese, and will produce electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) and manganese sulphate (MnSO4).

The plant flowsheet consists of proven unit operations including crushing, scrubbing, grinding, hydrometallurgical recovery and purification, as well as electrolysis/evaporation for final product production. The plant also includes reductant preparation, product handling, tailings neutralisation and reagents storage facilities.

The overall manganese metal recovery from RoM ore to EMM, with the selected flowsheet, was modelled to be 76.1% and from RoM ore to MnSO4 as 80.5%.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
Not stated.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The scoping study supports Montezuma’s aim to complete a preliminary feasibility study and apply for regulatory consents in 2018/19, with development targeted in 2020/21.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Mining Solutions (scoping study); Simulus Engineers (processing, operating and capital cost estimates); Extomine (resource model); Simulus Engineers (metallurgical process design, capital and operating cost estimates); Enviroworks and Martinick Bosch Sell (environmental review and costings); Qube Logistics (logistics solution and costings); Tenet Consulting and Advisian (power cost estimates); and Metals Bulletin Research (metals market research, including volume and price forecasts).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Montezuma Mining Company executive director Justin Brown, tel +61 8 6315 1400 or email jbrown@montezuma.com.au.