Monday 15 October 2012

Prophecy Platinum starts Wellgreen environmental studies, expects new COO


Vancouver-based Prophecy Platinum Corp. (CVE:NKL)(OTCQX:PNIKF) has hired engineering consultants to start environmental baselines studies this fall at its Wellgreen platinum group metals-nickel-copper project in the southwestern part of Yukon. 
The company said Monday it signed a contract with EBA Engineering Consultants, a Tetra Tech company from Whitehorse, to carry out the work, which will include the collection of meteorological data, surface water quality and analysis of recent wildlife studies. 
The platinum miner noted that the Yukon Enivronment and Socio-economic Assessment Board requires roughly two years of baseline data as part of the overall quartz mining permit application - which Prophecy aims to submit by 2015. 
The company also said Monday that it expects a new COO to start in early November, and has recruited Matthew Emergy as an investor relations manager. 
In other news, Prophecy has terminated its option and joint venture deal with Marifil Mines (CVE:MFM) on the Las Aguilas property in Argentina. The Las Aguilas nickel-copper-platinum group project is located in the province of San Luis, Argentina approximately 800 km to the west of Buenos Aires.
Prophecy's Wellgreen is located in the south west of Canada's mining-friendly Yukon Territory, approximately 35 kilometres northwest of the airstrip at Burwash Landing, just 15 km from the Alaska Highway and 402 km from the deep sea port of Haines in Alaska.
A July 2011, NI 43 101-compliant report provides a resource estimate of 289 million tonnes in the inferred category with grades of 0.38% nickel, 0.35% copper, 1.18 grams per tonne (g/t) PGM and gold, and 14 million tonnes in the indicated category at 0.69% nickel, 0.62% copper, 2.25 g/t PGM and gold.
"The Wellgreen project is large and has attractive economical and strategic value in PGMs and will represent up to 20 per cent of North American platinum output once in production," Prophecy Platinum's chairman and CEO John Lee told investors, analysts and shareholders listening in on a webcast earlier this month. 
In June, Prophecy Platinum released the PEA for the project, which showed Wellgreen had a net present value of $3.0 billion.
The economic report, prepared by Tetra Tech, evaluated a base case open pit mine at an 111,500 tonne per day mining rate, and an onsite concentrator at a 32,000 tonne per day milling rate. 
The project is expected to produce 1.959 billion pounds of nickel in concentrate, 2.058 billion pounds of copper and 7.119 million ounces of platinum plus palladium plus gold over a 37-year mine life, with an average strip ratio of 2.57.
This is a third of the production of Stillwater, one of the largest independent PGM producers in North America, Lee said.
Aside from Wellgreen, Prophecy also holds the Shakespeare platinum group metals-nickel-copper project in Ontario, and its Lynn Lake project in Manitoba.

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