Name of the Project
Buena Vista iron project.

Location
Nevada, US.

Project Owner/s
Magnum Mining and Exploration.

Project Description
The Buena Vista site is a fully permitted mine, owing to its previous history of production, and is entirely located on private land.

A scoping study completed in August 2023 considers the project as technically low-risk because of the well-studied metrics of the proposed mining and beneficiation operation.

Envisaged is a standalone openpit mine – supplying a conventional crush, grind and magnetic separation process, and targeting 1.6-million tonnes a year of direct reduction iron magnetite concentrate production over an initial 25-year life-of-mine (LoM). Over the current LoM, 84% of ore will be sourced from indicated resources and 16% from inferred resources. Magnum has advised that the inferred resources are not a determining factor in the project’s viability and are not required early in the mine plan.

The scoping study considers only the West deposit resource, which, for scheduling purposes, includes the Section 5 resource.

It is proposed that an average of 7.2-million tonnes of ore and 3.6-million tonnes of waste a year will be mined from the West deposit.

The project’s East deposit may be considered to extend the LoM at a later date.

Buena Vista’s magnetite ore will be beneficiated using industry standard methods – primary, secondary and tertiary crushing, followed by coarse wet magnetic separators to reject nonmagnetic portions to waste.

The project includes an office, a laboratory, workshop facilities, stockpiles, waste dumps, a tailings storage facility, water supply borefield and pipe routes, as well as access roads to and within the plant, mine and site.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of between $360-million and $748-million, and an internal rate of return of between 26% and 54%, with an estimated payback of three to five years.

Capital Expenditure
$280-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Magnum Mining & Exploration is considering a fast start-up option for its Buena Vista iron project, which will deliver earlier cash flows, based on accessing higher-grade portions of the existing resource.

As part of the short-term expedited development plan, the company has developed a five-year mine schedule, delivering 2.5 million tonnes a year of ore to the beneficiation plant and supporting an average of 800 000 t/y of concentrate production.

The expedited development option will have average ore grades of 29.1% iron over the five years.

The scoping study for the project is based on a production rate of 1.6-million tonnes a year of magnetite concentrate over a mine life of 25 years.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Magnum Mining, tel +61 8 6489 0600 or email info@mmel.com.au.