Phoenix Global PEA lifts Idaho-based Empire mine output 16%

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of LSE-quoted project developer Phoenix Global Mining’s historic Empire mine, in Idaho, has outlined a 16% improved production scenario over previous estimates, taking only the openpit copper oxide resource into consideration.

The PEA shows an average copper cathode production rate of 8 124 t/y from a two-million-tonne-a-year mine, at a cash cost of production of $1.85/lb of copper.

Importantly, the PEA excludes the potential economic benefits of the gold, silver and zinc that were reported in the updated November 2017 resources, following the 2017 drilling programme. To make better sense of these minerals, the company will start work on a bankable feasibility study (BFS) in the third quarter to examine their potential.

Based on the openpit copper oxides occurring within an optimised pit shell that includes 11.49-billion tons in the measured and indicated categories grading 0.52% copper, above a cutoff grade of 0.184%, and 9.88-billion tons of inferred material above the same cutoff grading 0.41% copper, the Empire project has a calculated after-tax net present value (when applying a 7.5% discount rate) of $53.66-million, and an internal rate of return of 23.5%.

Preproduction capital is estimated at $61.2-million, to establish an operation that can produce 8 124 t/y of copper cathode over the operation’s eight-year mine life.

The BFS will provide the necessary information to start construction in 2019, with the goal of first production by early 2021, the company stated.

Phoenix Global, which made its debut on the LSE's Aim market late in June last year, gained as much as 7.14% a share in early trading in London, before settling down 1.19% at 4.15 pence a share at the closing bell.