PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The US Bureau of Land Management has inked a Record of Decision (RoD) for the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project, approving the development of the northern route to provide access to the Ambler mining district.
ASX-listed South32 and TSX- and NYSE-listed joint venture (JV) partner Trilogy Metals on Friday said that the permitting of the proposed Ambler access road was a significant milestone, and that the road would unlock the economic potential of the region by allowing greater access to the district and the potential development of the Arctic project, which is in a remote area of north-west Alaska.
"We welcome the RoD, a key milestone to further progress the Ambler Metals project. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Trilogy to unlock the value of the project's high-quality base and precious metals resources, working together to advance it through the current study phase,” said South32 CEO Graham Kerr.
Ambler Metals is a JV between South32 and Trilogy focused on the polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style deposits of Ambler. South32 contributed $145-million to the JV and Trilogy all the assets, the two most advanced being the Arctic and Bornite projects.
The $799.6-million Arctic project currently has a mine life of 12 years and will produce three high-quality concentrates: copper, zinc and precious metals. Its yearly average production will be 159-million pounds of copper, 199-million pounds of zinc, 33-million pounds of lead, 3.3-million ounces of silver and 30 600 oz of gold.
The 2018 prefeasibility study for the Arctic project describes the potential technical and economic viability of establishing a conventional openpit mine-and-mill complex for a 10 000 t/d operation. It calculated an aftertax net present value of $1.4-billion and an internal rate of return of 33%, with a two year payback period.
In June this year, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), approved a memorandum of understanding with Ambler Metals which specifies how the parties will jointly establish a plan regarding the permitting, feasibility, engineering and design, construction and operation, financing and closure of the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project.
Ambler Metals has committed to contribute up to $35-million to match AIDEA's contribution of $35-million for these activities.