TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed iron-ore explorer Rockex Mining on Monday announced that it had gained a conditional listing on the Canadian National Stock Exchange (CNSX), subject to certain conditions, including completing financing to ensure that the company met the working capital requirements of the bourse.

The company also on Monday filed the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Eagle Island iron-ore project, in north-western Ontario.

The PEA attached a net present value (NPV) of $3.9-billion to the project, when using a 5% discount rate, and a $2.2-billion NPV when using an 8% discount rate.

The mine is expected to cost $1.6-billion to construct, and would have a 20.7% pretax internal rate of return and a 4.2-year payback period.

Over the 30-year life of the mine, the Eagle Island operation is expected to produce six-million tonnes of 66.3% iron-concentrate pellets, at an average site operating cost of $36.63/t.

Eagle Island currently has a National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated resource of 1.29-billion tonnes grading 28.39% iron and an inferred resource of about 108-million tonnes grading 31.03% iron.

"This PEA presents Eagle Island's strong economic potential and confirms management's belief in the project. This PEA is a critical valuation and marketing document that will give Rockex excellent positioning for negotiations with a strategic partner," president and CEO Edward Yew said.

Rockex listed on the TSX in March 2011, and is drilling for iron-ore 300 km north-west of Thunder Bay, in western Ontario.

The property is not in the Labrador Trough, which hosts the bulk of Canadian iron-ore, nor on Baffin Island, where ArcelorMittal operates the Mary River project.

Steelmakers Stelco and Dofasco, along with a company called Steep Rock Iron Mines agreed in the late 1980s to put the property into production, but never did. Algoma Steel then allowed the claims to lapse in 2007, opening the way for Rockex to acquire the Lake St Joseph iron property in 2008.