TORONTO, May 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Melior Resources Inc. (TSXV:MLR) (“Melior” or the “Company”) today provided details about construction and development progress at its Goondicum Ilmenite Project.
Project Scope & Description
On 9 April 2018, Melior announced the commencement of work on the Goondicum restart project having procured US$12.25 million (C$15.7 million1) of debt facilities. Work commenced shortly thereafter with the restart program anticipated to take a total of six months to complete preproduction activities followed by commissioning and first production scheduled to begin in November 2018. A total of C$9.8 million is budgeted to be spent on restart activities2, including working capital, in the six month preproduction period.
The primary capital activities in the preproduction period include:
- Repairs and maintenance from previous operational period
- Procuring critical spares
- Improving aspects of the previous process flowsheet
- Installation of additional processing circuits
- Construction of additional tailings storage capacity
- Offsite infrastructure construction
Progress as at May 25, 2018
Site activity has started to build momentum as supplies and equipment are ordered, admin and work procedures finalized, and construction and key long term operational personnel are on-boarded.
The total project is budgeted to take 21,661 man-hours to complete. As of May 25, 2018, 609 man-hours had been worked on the project completing 1,700 hours of budgeted work for a saving of 1,100 hours to date. The overall project is estimated to be 11% complete. No safety or environmental incidents have been recorded to date.
Mark McCauley, CEO of Melior said, “We are off to a great start completing the construction work at Goondicum and remain on schedule and within budget. We anticipate that our target of commencing production in November will be realized. Ilmenite prices continue to be robust and market feedback suggests on-going strength as we approach our start date.”
For the purposes of project planning and management, work has been divided into project specific areas on a functional basis. Capital expenditure has been allocated to these areas as shown in Table 1 below. These figures include all labour, parts and equipment directly required to complete the job. Each of these individual tasks are relatively straightforward as stand-alone activities however, as a cumulative project, detailed planning and scheduling is required to ensure everything runs smoothly and the project is delivered on time and on budget.
The critical path items in the construction period are the refurbishment and installation of the run-of-mine (ROM) feeder unit which is being transported to the mine site from Western Australia and the installation of the attritioning circuit and the spiral merge projects which are both reliant on the timely delivery of long-lead time items from third party vendors.
The construction work will be carried out using a combination of Goondicum’s own employees and contractors where appropriate with the project overseen by Project Manager Alastair Bauer, Construction Manager Gerry Finch and CFO Jonathan Mattiske.
Table 1: Project Budget Breakdown
| Budgeted Preproduction Activity | C$ '000 | Impact on the Operation |
| Water pipeline lime treatment plant | 243 | Ensure longevity of project water pipeline |
| Run-of-Mine (ROM) feeder | 1,096 | Reduce opex and improve availability |
| Spiral merge project | 606 | Improve recoveries and availability |
| Screen oversize attritioning circuit | 256 | Improve recoveries |
| WHIMS water and feed reconfiguration | 456 | Improve recoveries and product quality |
| Ilmenite dephos circuit | 766 | Improve product quality |
| Drying circuit feed arrangement | 288 | Improve availability |
| Tailings dams | 1,195 | Operating requirement |
| Mining contractor mobilisation | 73 | Operating requirement |
| Light vehicles | 194 | Operating requirement |
| Identified site defects | 496 | Operating requirement |
| Critical spares | 479 | Operating requirement |
| Port storage | 296 | Operating requirement |
| Other capex items | 827 | Operating requirement |
| Contingency | 388 | |
| Preproduction Capital Budget | 7,660 | |
| Rehabilitation bond | 583 | Operating requirement |
| Working capital | 1,527 | General & administration |
| Total Goondicum Preproduction Budget | 9,770 |
The next project update will be provided in late July.
About Melior
Melior is the owner and operator of the Goondicum mine, a past-producing ilmenite and apatite mine strategically located in Queensland Australia. Further details on Melior and the Goondicum mine can be found at www.meliorresources.com and regulatory filings are available on SEDAR.
Melior is incorporated under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) and has a registered office in Toronto, Ontario. Melior is classified as a Tier 1 Mining Issuer under the policies of the TSX-V.
Forward Looking Statements Disclaimer
Statements made in this news release may be forward-looking and therefore subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such statements can typically be identified by terminology such as ‘‘may’’, ‘‘will’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘possible’’, ‘‘continue’’, “objective” or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Melior does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements; such statements speak only as at the date made.
For further information please contact:
MELIOR RESOURCES INC.
Mark McCauley
Chief Executive Officer
+61 7 3233 6300
info@meliorresources.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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1 USD:CDN = 0.78, AUD:CDN = 1.03
2 Excludes Melior general and administration costs