Vendetta shares positive PEA results for Pegmont Lead-Zinc Project

The PEA was developed by a team of independent consultants, including AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd., (AMC), GR Engineering Services (GRES), and AARC Environmental Solutions (AARC). Unless otherwise noted, all dollar figures reported are Australian dollars.

Michael Williams, Vendetta's President and CEO commented: "The results outlined in the PEA demonstrate a robust, standalone project. The project has been able to take advantage of Pegmont's location in the centre of well-developed infrastructure to deliver a pre-start capital that makes this an achievable project to develop for an aspiring junior miner. We are pleased with the strong results of the PEA and intend to now move to add incremental tonnes that can be brought into the mine plan, continue with early permitting work and expand exploration efforts. In addition to extracting more value out of the Project Vendetta will move forward with evaluating value adding opportunities in the region. The PEA demonstrates low risk economics and well-established mining and milling techniques in a stable and supportive jurisdiction."

Project technical and financial details

Capital and operating cost estimates

GRES provided capital estimates for all project infrastructure, mineral processing, bore field, gas pipeline, camp, fuel storage, offices and workshops. Equipment pricing was based on quotations and actual equipment costs from recent similar GRES projects considered representative of the project. The capital estimate is deemed to be of a level of accuracy consistent with industry standards for a PEA. Underground sustaining capital, including decline access, ventilation and electrical was estimated by AMC based on benchmarked data.

Contingencies were applied to the capital cost estimate as an allowance by assessing the level of confidence in the engineering estimate basis and vendor or contractor information.

Mineral Resource update

The basis for the PEA is the Mineral Resource estimate completed by AMC. The company reported details of the Mineral Resource update in a news release dated 9 August 2018.

The company continued to drill subsequent to the effective date. Results from these additional holes and future planned programmes will be used in future updates to the Mineral Resource. Assay results have been released and will be described in the Technical Report.

Mine planning

AMC utilised the Geovia Whittle™ pit optimisation process to define ultimate pit limits. The mine scheduling package Minemax was then used to target the most economic ore early in the mine life with constraints applied for the timing of in-pit tailings storage.

The opencast mine has been designed to be a conventional contractor truck-and-shovel operation. Average opencast mining recovery and dilution applied were 95% and 5% respectively. Material is delivered by haul truck to a run of mine (ROM) pad to be loaded into the primary crusher, with discharge from the crusher conveyed to a coarse stockpile adjacent to the mill.

Mining commences in the Burke Hinge Zone pit (BHZ), a satellite pit to the main zones which allows for 410 000 t of sulfide and 80 000 t of transition plant feed to be stockpiled on the ROM pad for start of processing. Mining then moves to another separate pit, Main 1, followed by Main 2 and a pushback into Main 3 to complete the locations for life of mine in-pit tailing storage. The largest pit has four stages (Main 4 - 7).

The opencast mine contractor mining fleet includes 90 t class trucks, loaded by 200 t diesel-hydraulic shovels. Drill and blast will be undertaken with track mounted drill rigs drilling 150 mm holes. Explosives are planned as down hole service by an explosives supplier. Haul roads are designed to be 23 m wide to allow for two-way traffic at a maximum gradient of 10%. Where possible waste is also placed onto in-pit dumps to reduce overall costs.

Over the mine life, a total of 8.9 Mt of material is sent to the mill from the open pits and a total waste movement of 110.8 million t, for a life of mine strip ratio of 12.5:1.

 

The underground areas were assessed by comparing open pit value to the value generated using the DatamineTM Mine Shape Optimizer (MSO) software. The combined value at each depth then determines the maximum value. The underground Mineral Resources are primarily flat dipping (23° to 30°) and vary in thickness across each zone (3 m - 12 m), lending themselves to room and pillar mining. The more steeply dipping portions of Zone 3 are suitable for long hole open stoping. Three separate areas could be optimally mined from underground; one directly beneath the main pit (Zone 3A) and one to the side of the main pit (Zone 3B), and the Bridge Zone.

A minimum 20 m crown pillar is left between the pit and stopes. For room and pillar extraction AMC has applied a dilution factor of 10% at zero grade to the Mineral Resource and a mining recovery factor of 86% has been applied to the stopes. For long hole mining AMC has applied a dilution factor of 12% at zero grade to the Mineral Resource and a mining recovery factor of 95% to the stopes. Long hole stopes are backfilled with waste rock.

Contractor mining using trackless diesel loaders and trucks and diesel-electric drilling equipment is planned. Declines provide fresh air intake, with each panel having a ventilation shaft fitted with a primary exhaust fan on surface.

Opencast mining accounts for 84% or 8.9 million t and underground for 16% or 1.7 million t of the total 10.6 million t of material processed.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/29012019/vendetta-shares-positive-pea-results/