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Jubilee Pt to dig $400m mine Posted: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 [miningmx.com] -- JUBILEE Platinum, a junior exploration firm listed in London and Johannesburg, has unveiled plans to dig a $400m platinum mine producing about 262,000 oz/year from its Tjate prospect in South Africa's western Bushveld. By historic standards the mine would descend to a relatively deep 1.1km, but Colin Bird, CEO of Jubilee Platinum, said platinum mine project economics had changed lately. "You can't mine the near surface stuff again," said Bird in a telephonic interview. "And many of the other western limb projects are also relatively deep. This represents the new generation of platinum mines." The mine's annual production was based on about 15% of assessed platinum minerals in the Tjate property. Merensky reef, which is rich in nickel and copper by-products, would be intersected at a depth of about 650m. Financing the project could be achieved by co-operating with other junior mining firms in a consolidation, or by partnering with a major mining company, such as Anglo Platinum or Impala Platinum. "We're near Twickenham (Anglo Platinum's project) and down dip of Impala. It's one helluva address," Bird said. Earlier this year, Lonmin successfully bid $450m for the Akanani platinum prospect from AfriOre, a venture that Lonmin claimed is based on thick reef with potentially high mining grades. Critics say it must be drilled more thoroughly, however. And within a week of Lonmin's acquisition, Impala Platinum announced it would spend about $600m buying control of AIM-listed African Platinum. It has a single project, Leeuwkop which mines to a depth of 1.3km. Bird said there had been no discussions with any of the major miners regarding corporate activity on Tjate. "For us its business as usual. We'll wait before knocking on any doors." According to a scoping study, the internal rate of return on the project after tax was 22%; a net present value of $292m using a discount rate of 10% was also calculated. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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