Traditional Mining, State-of-the-Art Processing
Using open pit mining techniques traditional on the Mesabi Iron Range, PolyMet will mine ore containing copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold. The company will use modern processing techniques to recover these metals, which are used in everyday products such as electrical wiring, automobile emission controls and medical applications.
Despite the importance of these metals to daily life, the United States currently has no domestic sources of nickel or cobalt. The United States also imports 40% of its copper and between 80% and 95% of its platinum and palladium.
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Capital Costs
On May 20, 2008, PolyMet updated its DFS capital and operating cost estimates reflecting both cost inflation and design scope changes since the DFS, including facilities needed to ship concentrate during the construction and commissioning of the new hydrometallurigcal plant.
The total capital cost was estimated at $602 million, including approximately $100 million of expenditures on measures to protect the environment, $77 million for mining equipment that was assumed to be provided by a mining contract in the DFS has been incorporated as an operating lease in updated operating costs.
The decision to sell concentrate during the construction and commissioning of new metallurgical facilities shortens the initial construction period, makes the project less sensitive to the delivery schedule for long lead time equipment such as autoclave vessels, and means that PolyMet can commence operations of the mine, the existing crushing and milling plant, the existing tailings disposal facilities, and the new flotation circuit, before starting the new hydrometallurgical plant.
As a result of the staged approach, the total capital required prior to initial production and sales declines to $312 million.
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