Summary: An order of magnitude capital cost has been extrapolated from previous projects, and adjusted for the inflation of steel and concrete prices, which approximates to
$20 million for a 200 tonne/day treatment plant at >90% recovery at high purity.
Using this value, and assuming fixed operating costs to be the same as the variable costs, then a series of IRR calculations was carried out. The results indicate a favorable IRR upwards from 55% range.
These results indicate a very positive IRR even if only the base metals are recovered at 1.0% Ni in the feed, and a very compelling return if both base metals and PGMs are extracted irrespective of the feed Ni level. The impact of hematite is also significant, while selling the sulphur and power add to the project, albeit at a lower rate. It is worth noting in this respect that there is a serviceable market for all recovered high purity mineral by-products.