Thomas Zwirz

The fines Bypass is a primary and secondary screening process which allows fines in the crude ore to bypass the grinding mills and be pumped directly to the primary spiral circuit. This allowed the avoidance of installing a new grinding mill at 3X the cost and provided increased production in 1-2 years vs 3-4 years for a new grinding mil.

Two new MRCs were added to provide additional ore grading flexibility and capacity to reduce the silica and manganese content in the final concentrate.

The main objective of the Mill 11 Fine Circuit Upgrade Project is to improve the recovery in IOC’s concentrator by installing a Reflux Classifier based flowsheet.

Study Manager for debottlenecking, optimization, and restarting of an Iron Ore operation in Norway.

Dumont 2019 Feasibility Study Highlights:
Large scale, low cost, long-life project
Initial nickel production in concentrate of 33ktpa ramping up to 50ktpa in Phase II expansion – production of approximately 1.2 million tonnes (2.6 billion pounds) of nickel in concentrate, over a 30-year life with an initial capital expenditure of $1.0 billion.
Phase I C1 cash costs2 of $2.98/lb ($6,570/t). Life-of-mine C1 cash costs2 of $3.22/lb ($7,100/t Ni) and AISC of $3.80/lb ($8,380/t) of… Show more

Dumont 2019 Feasibility Study Highlights:
Large scale, low cost, long-life project
Initial nickel production in concentrate of 33ktpa ramping up to 50ktpa in Phase II expansion – production of approximately 1.2 million tonnes (2.6 billion pounds) of nickel in concentrate, over a 30-year life with an initial capital expenditure of $1.0 billion.
Phase I C1 cash costs2 of $2.98/lb ($6,570/t). Life-of-mine C1 cash costs2 of $3.22/lb ($7,100/t Ni) and AISC of $3.80/lb ($8,380/t) of payable nickel (low 2nd quartile of cash cost curve)
Significant earnings and free cash flow generation support strong project economics
$920 M after-tax NPV8% and 15.4% after-tax internal rate of return ("IRR")
Estimated annual EBITDA ramping up from $303 million in Phase I to $425 million in Phase II and averaging of $340 million over the life of project. Free cash flow averages $ 201 million annually over the 30-year project life
Top tier mining asset in excellent jurisdiction3
2nd largest nickel reserve in the world of 2.8 million tonnes (6.1 billion lbs) contained nickel and 9th largest cobalt reserve with 110 thousand tonnes (243 million lbs) contained cobalt
Once in production, a top 5 nickel sulphide operation globally, a top 3 Canadian base metal asset, and one of largest battery metal development projects globally
Fully permitted, construction ready project located in Abitibi region in Quebec – one of world's leading mining jurisdictions
Impacts and Benefits Agreement successfully negotiated with local First Nation Show less

Ausenco is pleased to announce that we have been selected by Granada Gold Mine Inc to undertake a feasibility study for the development of a 80,000 – 100, 000 oz/y gold mine at its Granada Gold Property in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Given our previous study work in the region, and recent completion of an EPC project in Eastern Canada, we are excited by the opportunity to optimize value to the benefit of Granada Gold shareholders.

Algold Files Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report for Tijirit


MONTREAL, July 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ALGOLD RESOURCES LTD. (TSX-V:ALG) (the “Corporation”) today announced that it has filed a technical report entitled Technical Report for the Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Tijirit Project in Mauritania (the “Report”) dated July 4, 2018. The Report is available on Sedar (www.sedar.com) and on the Corporation’s website (www.algold.com).

Highlights of… Show more

Algold Files Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report for Tijirit


MONTREAL, July 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ALGOLD RESOURCES LTD. (TSX-V:ALG) (the “Corporation”) today announced that it has filed a technical report entitled Technical Report for the Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Tijirit Project in Mauritania (the “Report”) dated July 4, 2018. The Report is available on Sedar (www.sedar.com) and on the Corporation’s website (www.algold.com).

Highlights of the Tijirit PEA*
(All monetary amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated.)
•Financial Returns: Project net present value (“NPV”) of $94.9M at an 8% discount rate with an internal rate of return (“IRR”) of 28.4% and Corporate after-tax NPV of $69.0M at an 8% discount rate with an IRR of 23.5% , using a gold price of $1,250 per ounce.
•Revenue: Total revenue derived from the sale of the gold for the life of mine (“LOM”) was estimated at $717.4M.
•CapEx: Pre-production direct capital cost of $96.4M, in addition to indirect costs of $31.2M and a contingency allowance of $17.9M. Total sustaining and expansion CapEx of $47.1M over the mine life including the Phase II expansion in year 4.
•Production:
- Phase I: 1,018 million tonnes per year for a period of four (4) years with an average annual production rate of 104,500 ounces of gold.
- Phase II: 1,642 million tonnes per year for the three (3) following years with an average annual production rate of 53,000 ounces of gold.
•Cash Cost: Average cash cost of $475 per ounce during Phase I and $893 per ounce during Phase II
•Mine Life: 7.1 years
•Payback Period: 1.8 years (after-tax)
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- Project manager for Argex Titanium Basic Engineering Package (FEL2) 25000 t/yr titanium dioxide plant for technology plant and commercial plant using new proprietary chloride process

Delivered a Class 4 estimate for refurbishment to extend the powerhouse lifespan by another 25 years and a Class 5 estimate for replacement with new turbines and associated equipment.

Light Metals 2011 Edited by: Stephen J. Lindsay
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2011
Alcoa STARprobeTM

Xiangwen Wang, Bob Hosler, Gary Tarcy
Alcoa Primary Metals, Alcoa Inc., USA

Alcoa STARprobeTM is a probe device/system used to measure
cryolitic bath properties including Superheat, Temperature,
Alumina concentration, and cryolite Ratio (acidity), STAR, all
together in real time for active pot control. The proprietary
measurement principle is… Show more

Light Metals 2011 Edited by: Stephen J. Lindsay
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2011
Alcoa STARprobeTM

Xiangwen Wang, Bob Hosler, Gary Tarcy
Alcoa Primary Metals, Alcoa Inc., USA

Alcoa STARprobeTM is a probe device/system used to measure
cryolitic bath properties including Superheat, Temperature,
Alumina concentration, and cryolite Ratio (acidity), STAR, all
together in real time for active pot control. The proprietary
measurement principle is based on differential thermal analysis
(DTA). This paper shows the fundamentals of operation along
with the correlation of all the analysis with the accepted methods
of XRD and pyrotitration for acidity, thermocouples for Bath
Temperature and LECO and XRF analysis for alumina. The
timing of the measurement will be shown to be equal to the
traditional methods and the reliability (including reusable use of
the probes) will also be described.

Light Metals 2011 Edited by: Stephen J. Lindsay
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2011
ACTIVE POT CONTROL USING ALCOA STARprobeTM

Xiangwen Wang, Gary Tarcy, Eliezer Batista, Geff Wood
Alcoa Primary Metals, Alcoa Inc., USA

To run an aluminum smelting cell, routine bath sampling and
subsequent chemistry analysis are required along with pot
temperature measurement. The sampling and analytical process is
lengthy, tedious, and very often results are delayed as long as 24
hours. In addition the results are not coupled to other critical
information (e.g. noise, automatic resistance adjustments, etc) at
the time of the sample. Alcoa STARprobeTM, which was
previously described (1), corrects these deficiencies while
providing a means to more efficiently and effectively control a
smelting pot. This paper presents the background philosophy for
an advanced control that has been enabled by the new
measurement technique. The control method has been applied in
multiple plants and demonstration of improved performance will
be shown. Show less

Light Metals 2009
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2009

Modern smelting control systems have large amounts of available data. The information in this data is often underutilized due to inefficient information extraction from databases containing a large number of noisy and highly collinear measurements. The difficulties associated with analyzing such large databases can limit process engineers to analyze a few variables at a time using either univariate control charts… Show more

Light Metals 2009
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2009

Modern smelting control systems have large amounts of available data. The information in this data is often underutilized due to inefficient information extraction from databases containing a large number of noisy and highly collinear measurements. The difficulties associated with analyzing such large databases can limit process engineers to analyze a few variables at a time using either univariate control charts or simple x/y correlations to assess the efficiency of reduction cells.

Principal Component Analysis has shown the capability to cope with large messy databases (including colinearity, missing data points, and noisy measurements). This technique generates statistics to determine if a pot is in multivariate control by projecting the pot data onto a reference model. It is then possible to extract information that highlights variables with a significant impact on driving the pot out-of-control. Alcoa Inc. is using multivariate Principal Component techniques for potroom problem solving. Several applications will be discussed.
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A representative conveyor 2B beltwash sample for manganese of the crushed ore, would lead to a quick and inexpensive sample indicator of the Mn entering the mill, without the current lag time problem. A representative beltwash sample could then be correlated to the spiral concentrate sample which would lead to a faster response to changes in the pit and thus provide better grade control. The improvement to the blending process would translate into cost savings by reducing the need to stockpile… Show more

A representative conveyor 2B beltwash sample for manganese of the crushed ore, would lead to a quick and inexpensive sample indicator of the Mn entering the mill, without the current lag time problem. A representative beltwash sample could then be correlated to the spiral concentrate sample which would lead to a faster response to changes in the pit and thus provide better grade control. The improvement to the blending process would translate into cost savings by reducing the need to stockpile for out of grade situations.
The pipe sampler arrangement was optimized to ensure it was representative of the total beltwash flow. The pipe sample Mn was then compared to predicted mine composites, as well as to mill hourly spiral concentrate data. The final stage compared the pipe sample manganese to the spiral circuit tails and concentrate on one mill line.
The pipe sampler was representative of the total beltwash stream. Pipe sample manganese values showed large scatter when compared to predicted manganese based on blasthole composites. Comparison between pipe sample manganese and spiral concentrate manganese showed a poor correlation with difficulties associated with predicting lag time. Isolating the largest manganese bearing size fraction showed, similarly, a poor correlation between spiral concentrate data. The single mill line comparison confirmed the difficulties in accurately determining a relationship between the beltwash Mn and spiral tails or concentrate data.
The sources of error in trying to correlate beltwash manganese to mine predicted or spiral data are numerous and lead to a poor correlation for Mn. Alternative methods for improving the grading process should be investigated.
The initial objectives for the beltwash sampler of providing a quick, inexpensive, and accurate indicator of the manganese entering the mill were not achieved. A clearer understanding of the problems encountered with manganese grade control was realized. Show less