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A bankable feasibility study scheduled for completion in first quarter of 2008 points to the rapid development of Tri Origin’s Woodlawn Zinc-Copper project in New South Wales, near the town of Tarago, 45 minutes’ drive north of Canberra.
The minerals explorer and developer is catching the eye of investors, due largely to the potential of its 18.7 million tonne zinc-copper resource at Woodlawn.
The venture, which comprises both the Woodlawn Underground Project and the Woodlawn Retreatment Project, is drawing close to the completion of its bankable feasibility study, and Tri Origin’s managing director Bruce Robertson is pleased with recent developments.
“This has been an exciting quarter for the company at Woodlawn,” says Mr Robertson. “We’ve made significant progress in a number of areas.
“On the mining side we’re now entering the detailed design phase for the underground project. On the metallurgical side we’re now at the optimization stage for both the tailings re-treatment project as well as the underground project.
“We’ve completed all the geotechnical definition for the site infrastructure, including the two plant sites. So we’re well and truly on track to complete the feasibility study on first quarter ‘08. Importantly also, we’ve progressed the statutory approval process and we remain on track to achieve statutory approvals by mid 2008.”
Under previous ownership, Woodlawn was closed in 1998 due to low metal prices and corporate issues. However, with a new mining strategy, and a strong zinc market, Tri Origin’s Bankable Feasibility Study will document why the outlook for Woodlawn will be very different this time around.
Mr Robertson says that Tri Origin’s expected improved operational performance at the site can in part be attributed to mechanical advances.
“We believe we can extract additional concentrates from the tailings dams,” Mr Robertson says. “And it’s principally due to grinding technology advances as well as flotation advances that have been achieved in the industry in the last decade or so. We expect to have a very different approach to the mining strategy that was practiced in the past at Woodlawn, and we believe that this will enable us to extract a greater proportion of the high grade ore that exists underground.”
While Tri Origin expects to improve significantly on past mining performance at Woodlawn, the site’s former mining activities do offer some advantages.
“I believe the project has significant capital cost advantages,” Mr Robertson says. “The infrastructure is predominantly in place, we have a bitumen road to the front door, we have a power line with sufficient capability to the site, there’s borefields in place, and other infrastructure that’s required to develop the project.”
Tri Origin’s managing director also believes that running the underground mine and the tailings re-treatment projects concurrently will offer the company efficiency and security.
“We’ve got two operations which are relatively independent of each other, but also we can spread our administration costs over a much larger tonnage, as well as the process plant management costs, so from an operational sense that tends to mitigate a significant number of risks,” Mr Robertson says.
It is hoped that production will begin at Woodlawn towards the end of 2009, which is a timeframe that Tri Origin believes will benefit its shareholders.
“Analysts are now suggesting that the zinc market will be significantly constrained from a supply point of view in approximately two years time,” Mr Robertson says. “This bodes very well for our shareholders, in that our development timeframe fits nicely into that predicted zinc supply shortage.”
Furthermore, Woodlawn’s location in the Lachlan Fold Belt north-east of Canberra, is ideally suited when it comes to attracting an expert workforce.
“The resource industry is constrained from an expertise view point,” Mr Robertson says. “We believe the setting for the Woodlawn Project, which is only about 45 minute drive from Canberra, and about two and a half hours drive from Sydney, is very well positioned to attract a very competent and stable work force.
“As well, we believe we have good community support for what we’re setting out to do at the site. We’ll employ around 200 people at Woodlawn when we’re fully operational and we believe that we’ll be there for over the next decade or more.”
As Tri Origin moves towards the completion of its feasibility study, Bruce Robertson says that the short and long-term goals remain clear.
“Our objective for this coming quarter is to take the feasibility study through to a stage where we are close to integrating the tailings re-treatment project and the Woodlawn underground project.
“This will entail looking at potential production profiles, operating cost structures and capital cost structures, with the objective of maximising value for existing shareholders.
“This is a very exciting time for Tri Origin Minerals as we progress the Woodlawn Zinc-Copper Projects, and we move up the value curve towards achieving our goal of production in third quarter 09.”
The minerals explorer and developer is catching the eye of investors, due largely to the potential of its 18.7 million tonne zinc-copper resource at Woodlawn.
The venture, which comprises both the Woodlawn Underground Project and the Woodlawn Retreatment Project, is drawing close to the completion of its bankable feasibility study, and Tri Origin’s managing director Bruce Robertson is pleased with recent developments.
“This has been an exciting quarter for the company at Woodlawn,” says Mr Robertson. “We’ve made significant progress in a number of areas.
“On the mining side we’re now entering the detailed design phase for the underground project. On the metallurgical side we’re now at the optimization stage for both the tailings re-treatment project as well as the underground project.
“We’ve completed all the geotechnical definition for the site infrastructure, including the two plant sites. So we’re well and truly on track to complete the feasibility study on first quarter ‘08. Importantly also, we’ve progressed the statutory approval process and we remain on track to achieve statutory approvals by mid 2008.”
Under previous ownership, Woodlawn was closed in 1998 due to low metal prices and corporate issues. However, with a new mining strategy, and a strong zinc market, Tri Origin’s Bankable Feasibility Study will document why the outlook for Woodlawn will be very different this time around.
Mr Robertson says that Tri Origin’s expected improved operational performance at the site can in part be attributed to mechanical advances.
“We believe we can extract additional concentrates from the tailings dams,” Mr Robertson says. “And it’s principally due to grinding technology advances as well as flotation advances that have been achieved in the industry in the last decade or so. We expect to have a very different approach to the mining strategy that was practiced in the past at Woodlawn, and we believe that this will enable us to extract a greater proportion of the high grade ore that exists underground.”
While Tri Origin expects to improve significantly on past mining performance at Woodlawn, the site’s former mining activities do offer some advantages.
“I believe the project has significant capital cost advantages,” Mr Robertson says. “The infrastructure is predominantly in place, we have a bitumen road to the front door, we have a power line with sufficient capability to the site, there’s borefields in place, and other infrastructure that’s required to develop the project.”
Tri Origin’s managing director also believes that running the underground mine and the tailings re-treatment projects concurrently will offer the company efficiency and security.
“We’ve got two operations which are relatively independent of each other, but also we can spread our administration costs over a much larger tonnage, as well as the process plant management costs, so from an operational sense that tends to mitigate a significant number of risks,” Mr Robertson says.
It is hoped that production will begin at Woodlawn towards the end of 2009, which is a timeframe that Tri Origin believes will benefit its shareholders.
“Analysts are now suggesting that the zinc market will be significantly constrained from a supply point of view in approximately two years time,” Mr Robertson says. “This bodes very well for our shareholders, in that our development timeframe fits nicely into that predicted zinc supply shortage.”
Furthermore, Woodlawn’s location in the Lachlan Fold Belt north-east of Canberra, is ideally suited when it comes to attracting an expert workforce.
“The resource industry is constrained from an expertise view point,” Mr Robertson says. “We believe the setting for the Woodlawn Project, which is only about 45 minute drive from Canberra, and about two and a half hours drive from Sydney, is very well positioned to attract a very competent and stable work force.
“As well, we believe we have good community support for what we’re setting out to do at the site. We’ll employ around 200 people at Woodlawn when we’re fully operational and we believe that we’ll be there for over the next decade or more.”
As Tri Origin moves towards the completion of its feasibility study, Bruce Robertson says that the short and long-term goals remain clear.
“Our objective for this coming quarter is to take the feasibility study through to a stage where we are close to integrating the tailings re-treatment project and the Woodlawn underground project.
“This will entail looking at potential production profiles, operating cost structures and capital cost structures, with the objective of maximising value for existing shareholders.
“This is a very exciting time for Tri Origin Minerals as we progress the Woodlawn Zinc-Copper Projects, and we move up the value curve towards achieving our goal of production in third quarter 09.”
