I-Minerals Inc. recently announced the results of the technical economic model of the Feasibility Study on the Bovill Kaolin Project, a long-term resource of high-purity quartz, potassium feldspar (K-spar), halloysite, and kaolinite. The project is located within five miles of state highways with commercial distributions of electricity and natural gas already near the property boundary. The study was led by GBM Engineers LLC. The project will reportedly incur an initial capital cost of $108.3 million, and a total life of mine capital cost of $120 million, with a mine life of 26 years and a 0.54:1 strip ratio. The project is estimated to produce 21.3 million short tons of resources and 8.7 million short tons of reserves. It is estimated that it will take 3.2 years for pre-tax payback and 3.7 years for after tax payback.

“Based upon market studies and discussions with prospective customers, we made several amendments to the process flowsheet to allow for the production of a higher value mineral product mix as compared with the suite of mineral products contemplated in our June 2014 pre-feasibility study,” said Thomas Conway, president and CEO. “These changes include the addition of a proprietary flotation process to make the +90% purity Ultra HalloPure™ halloysite product, and increased calcination capacity as all kaolinite will now be made into metakaolin. In keeping with best practices to mitigate environmental impacts, we have also shifted to a dry stacking of the tailings that stands to reduce our water consumption and environmental risk. All told, we have a well-designed plant that supports a robust business plan that includes some conservative mineral pricing assumptions in the early years.” 

For more information, visit www.imineralsinc.com.