Nyngan Scandium Project

Location: New South Wales (NSW), Australia
Ownership: 100% Scandium International Mining Corp.

Project Highlights:

  • World's first scandium-only mine development project
  • NI 43-101 measured and indicated resource.
  • Excellent local infrastructure with nearby water, rail, power, roads and workforce.
  • Production targeted for approximately 38,000 kg per year of scandium oxide. (Sc2O3).
  • Flowsheet design complete, conventional technology, supported by 3rd party test work.
  • Definitive feasibility study completed.
  • All required governmental approvals to proceed have been received.

Project Resource.  The Nyngan scandium resource is located in NSW, Australia approximately 500 kilometers northwest of Sydney. Minerals exploration at the site has defined a measured and indicated resource significantly larger (7X) than the currently planned 20 year mine life outlined in the feasibility study.

Mine Plan Design.  The resource is amenable to surface mining, by conventional truck & shovel methods, with very low strip ratios. The resource is a typical tertiary laterite, composed of 50 meters of limonite and saprolite clays, overlain with 15 meters of alluvial material.  Annual recovery plant ore inputs will be satisfied by a part-year contract mining schedule, confined to the dry summer season.

Process Plant Design.  The separation and refining plant flow sheet was modeled and validated from METSIM modeling and considerable bench scale/small pilot scale metallurgical test work utilizing Nyngan resource material. Scandium recovery and beneficiation uses conventional flow sheet systems, specifically high pressure acid leach (HPAL) and solvent extraction (SX) techniques.

Project Status.  The project requires suitable short to medium term offtake agreements with customers, for a meaningful portion of phase one product output, in order to take final investment decision and finance/construct.  SCY continues to pursue offtakes at this time, both for oxide product and AlSc 2% master alloy product. 

Definitive Feasibility Study

During May 2016 the Company issued a National Instrument NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled "Feasibility Study - Nyngan Scandium Project". The feasibility study was independently prepared; Lycopodium Limited led the feasibility study team from their Brisbane, Australia office.

FEASIBILITY STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Capital cost estimate for the Project is US$87.1 million,
  • Operating cost estimate for the Project is US$557/kg scandium oxide,
  • Oxide product volume averages 37,690 kg per year, over 20 years,
  • Project Constant Dollar NPV10% is US$177 million, (NPV8% is US$225 million),
  • Project Constant Dollar IRR is 33.1%,
  • Oxide product grades of 98-99.9%, as based on customer requirements,
  • Project resource increases by 40% to 16.9 million tonnes, grading 235ppm Sc, at a 100ppm cut-off in the measured and indicated categories, and
  • Project Reserve totalling 1.43 million tonnes, grading 409ppm Sc was established on part of the resource.

The feasibility study concludes that the Project has the potential to produce an average of 37,690 kilograms of scandium oxide (scandia) per year, at grades of 98.0%-99.9%, generating an after tax cumulative cash flow over a 20 year Project life of US$629 million, with an NPV10% of US$177 million. The feasibility study has been developed and compiled to an accuracy level of +15%/-5%, by a globally recognized engineering firm with considerable expertise in laterite deposits.

A number of the key elements of this flowsheet work have been protected by the Company under US Patent Applications.

The full DFS is available as a download from this website, here

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