Az Zabirah Central Zone project - Preliminary technical and economical study

Mohammad Al Mesbah (1)

1 GEOSCIENCES - Centre de Géosciences

The objectives of this study are to estimate the reserve and the resource of Az Zabirah central zone and upgrade a part of the inferred to be indicated and to perform a preliminary technical and economic evaluation to extend the life of mine of the south zone. The last resource done on the Central zone was by Hatch on 2004, the total resource was 135.55 dry Mt at 51.45 TAA, 8.22 SiO2 and SG of 2.01 within cut off 40% TAA. The current study estimated about 135.43 dry Mt at 50.27 TAA, 8.15 SiO2 within Cut off 40% TAA. The indicated area was increased due to the last drilling program performed by Ma'aden, within closed spacing grid, thus the total tonnage increased as well to 32.33 Mt compared to 15.5Mt on Hatch's report. The Reserve was calculated of 26.01 dry Mt at 50.2 TAA, 8.32 SiO2 and 4.81 Fe2O3 at cut off 40% TAA, within loss of 0.25m and 0.15m dilution were applied and no optimization. A capital cost was estimated of 49.65 M$ for 5 years mining contractor. The complete economic study was given NPV and IRR within 12% actualization was applied. At 25.29 selling price which is around 10% reduction on the used prices (27.8$/t), we have break even, and at 23.38 selling price we have cash break even. The Central zone is very good advantage for Ma'aden to extend the proposed mine in the south zone and it could be more attractive if Ma'aden complete the drilling plan to upgrade the inferred resource to be an indicated and increase the reserve.

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

Mohammad Al Mesbah. Az Zabirah Central Zone project - Preliminary technical and economical study. 2009. ⟨hal-00595764⟩