Positive economic update on Crown Mountain Coking Coal Project
by Keith Powell
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Drilling activity on-site at Crown Mountain during the summer of 2014. — Photo courtesy BRR Media
With Jameson Resources subsidiary, NWP Coal Canada, CEO Art Palm making the rounds to do presentations to the City of Fernie, District of Elkford and Sparwod, the company has released an updated report on their junior venture-backed Crown Mountain project in the Elk Valley.
Jameson is an Australian listed junior mining company which hopes to develop the $336 million project despite the headwinds of current low coal prices.
Here are some highlights
- Several economic measures of the Crown Mountain project have become more favourable due to a host of positive macro-economic factors.
- Coupled with an ongoing PFS review by contract mining companies and mining consultants that indicates several areas of upside for the project, the economic benefits of the PFS can likely be obtained at significantly lower coal sales prices.
- The falling exchange rate to a current level of 0.80 CAD/USD, results in projected FOB costs of US $70.91/tonne during the initial 4 years of operation (US $87.28/tonne life of mine) versus the PFS estimates of US $88.64 during the initial 4 years of operation (and US $100.38/tonne life of mine).
- Additional upsides identified by contractor/consultant reviews indicate the potential for a number of significant enhancements to flow through the PFS on an OPEX and CAPEX basis.
- Contract mining/washing would eliminate a large (over$200 million) amount of up-front capital to a revised CAPEX (PFS) of $123 m .
See the detailed report here
