{"id":1163957,"date":"2020-02-05T18:49:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T00:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1013003"},"modified":"2020-02-05T18:49:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T00:49:20","slug":"south-star-releases-pfs-for-santa-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1163957","title":{"rendered":"South Star releases PFS for Santa Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pre-feasibility study results released for South Star Mining\u2019s wholly-owned 130-sq.-km Santa Cruz project suggests a two-phase approach for development of the graphite asset in southern Bahia. The associated project net present value estimate, at a 5% discount rate, stands at $81.2 million with a projected 35% internal rate of return.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe have now submitted all the required permitting and licensing documents for the Phase 1 production facilities,\u201d Richard Pearce, the company\u2019s president and CEO said in a release. \u201cWe have a PFS highlighting a project with robust economics, low capital intensity, and low OPEX designed around a simple, proven flowsheet in one of the most prolific, high-quality graphite producing regions in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first phase would consist of an open pit mine and pilot plant producing 5,000 t\/year of concentrate which would be used to optimize a flowsheet, generate samples and establish offtake agreements. The detailed engineering for the pilot plant was included in the PFS.<\/p>\n<p>The second stage would entail a plant with a similar process layout but capable of producing 25,000 t\/year of concentrate. Both phases would entail a filtered tailings technology whereby the tails are co-disposed with waste rock, eliminating the need for a tailings storage facility and allowing a smaller environmental footprint with simpler permitting.<\/p>\n<p>The study estimated a capital outlay of $7.3 million for the first phase and $27.2 million for the second; the combined open-pit mine would have a 12-year life.<\/p>\n<p>The company has completed a 30-tonne pilot plant test program of the friable mineralization which produced quality concentrates with marketable flake sizes.<\/p>\n<p>South Star plans to secure financing for construction and start-up of the pilot plant in the first half of the year. With an eight to ten-month construction period, production from the first phase is currently expected by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Maiden reserve release<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Alongside the PFS, South Star also released a maiden reserve estimate for Santa Cruz which totals 12.3 million tonnes at 2.4% carbon graphite for a total of 295,400 tonnes of graphite. The company has identified additional drill-ready targets at the property.<\/p>\n<p><em>(This article first appeared in the <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canadianminingjournal.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Canadian Mining Journal<\/em><\/a><em>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Net present value estimate stands at $81.2 million with a projected 35% internal rate of return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1163957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163958,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163957\/revisions\/1163958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1163957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1163957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1163957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}