Foran Mining Corp. announced Wednesday that a preliminary economic assessment is underway on its highly touted McIlvenna Bay deposit outside Flin Flon.
Foran has engaged BC-based JDS Energy and Mining Inc. to deliver the assessment on the zinc-copper-gold-silver deposit.
“We are pleased to announce this important undertaking for McIlvenna Bay, a well-located base metal deposit in a safe, stable jurisdiction,” said Patrick Soares, president and CEO of Foran. “Defining the preliminary economic parameters is a key step in advancing McIlvenna Bay on the road to production.”
Parameters
The assessment is designed to determine mining and processing parameters, and establish to a scoping-level, the capital expenditures and operating costs associated with the potential development of the deposit.
The assessment will incorporate results of engineering and environmental studies that have been conducted on the deposit since Foran’s new management team reinitiated activities at McIlvenna in 2011.
Completion of the assessment and an announcement summarizing the findings is expected sometime between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, with a guideline-compliant technical report to follow within 45 days of the announcement.
The Vancouver-based Foran has spent years touting the potential of McIlvenna, located 65 kilometres west of Flin Flon, in Saskatchewan.
In 2011, Soares boldly proclaimed Foran’s goal of one day operating “a world-class mine” at the property.
As with many pronouncements related to ore bodies in this region, it was widely greeted with a healthy dose of I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it skepticism.
That’s understandable and probably prudent. But Soares has insisted that since a new management team took over McIlvenna, “a great deal” of progress has been achieved.
Hudbay has looked into whether to purchase McIlvenna but had no such plans at last report. That means any mine at McIlvenna may have to be operated by Foran itself.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of information supplied by Foran.
