Page 56 - pd277-Nov19-mag-final-web_Neat

NORTHERN TERRITORY

TNG approaches final hurdles

ubject to finance, TNG Ltd is just two ward as the preferred pathway to produc-
Sapprovals away from being able to tion, as opposed to the 3 mtpa increasing
push the button on development of its to 6 mtpa operation considered in previous
Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron pro- feasibility studies.
ject in the Northern Territory. Under this model, which encapsulates
Last month the company submitted its a mining schedule initially focused on two
mining management plan to the NT’s De- high-grade vanadium zones, capex is set
partment of Primary Industry and Resourc- to drop by $29 million to $824 million and
es. It is the final regulatory hurdle for the mine life extended out to 37 years from the
Mount Peake mine site and concentrator. previously planned 20 years.
Over the coming months TNG will final- “We were very much focused on trying paul Burton
ise and submit its EIS for the Darwin-based to keep our capex as low as possible,” Bur-
TIVAN® processing facility. ton said. titanium dioxide pigment (DKSH) to be pro-
Formal approval of the mining manage- “Although the process we’ve developed duced from Mount Peake, however, TNG
ment plan and EIS are understood to be has a lot of internal, well understood tech- will need to revisit arrangements for the
key requirements for the financiers look- nologies, it’s the first time this process will iron ore after a term sheet with Singapore’s
ing to back development of Mount Peake, have been applied to this rock type. So, we Gunvor Group lapsed in September.
about 235km north of Alice Springs. don’t want to make the mistake that many “We have been talking to other people,
TNG managing director Paul Burton is other projects have made by trying to ramp but we’re also still in discussions with Gun-
not expecting any issues to arise from ei- up too quickly and build something that’s vor,” Burton said.
ther permitting submission. too big. “The offtake we had for them was for 60%
“The financers are looking at everything “We’ve identified two higher grade va- [of the iron ore], but they’re still interested and
at the moment and anything they would be nadium zones which make sense for us to they’re happy to take 40% or more. All of that
saying to us would be subject to statutory mine first and allows us to get a very good will unfold over the next few months, but cer-
approvals,” Burton told Paydirt. robust return for the vanadium and also tainly not in any way has this detracted from
“In this country it’s a process you have then for the titanium and the iron without the robustness of the project.”
to go through, but once you’ve got it, you’re having to go to a much higher ramp-up. Burton welcomed the support his com-
free to go. We’re very confident that the “It’s a much simpler process for finan- pany has received from the NT Government
MMP will be acceptable and also the EIS ciers to understand as well. They usually over more than a decade working on the
will be acceptable. You never know, there only ever look at a single stage, with any Mount Peake project which could be the Ter-
may well be some comments that come ramp-up subject to another round of fi- ritory’s first major resources development in
back, but if there are, we’ll deal with them.” nancing. We’re trying to be very fair to our- several years.
In Burton’s “ideal world”, he hopes TNG selves to give us the best chance of getting “We still have to define the full details on
will have packaged together funding ar- it financed and also to have a long life, very the royalty scheme with the Government
rangements and made a final investment robust project.” and any taxes as well, but that is a discus-
decision on development of the Mount A FEED study being undertaken by sion that is ongoing,” he said.
Peake project by this time next year. TNG’s strategic partner, German-based “We are very happy with the approach
TNG has been preparing for the start engineering firm SMS Group, is still to be that they’re taking and we couldn’t be more
of construction in recent months with the finalised, however, the company is confi- supportive of them as well. I think they’re
appointment of several key personnel, in- dent its proposed production start for late very pro-development of resource projects
cluding former Galaxy Resources Ltd ex- 2022 remains on course. and I think they would very much like to see
ecutive Terry Stark as general manager TNG’s mandated debt financier KfW more projects developed.
of mining operations, Graeme Stephen as IPEX-Bank has also confirmed the simpli- “This will be a great project for the NT
titanium process manager and Dan Foo as fied one-stage build is more amenable to economy and employment there.”
project director. the targeted debt-equity structure for the At the time of print, TNG announced it
An optimised project delivery strategy project. would undertake dual listing in London to
was also unveiled in September with a sin- Binding offtake agreements are in place enhance its project financing options.
gle-stage 2 mtpa development plan put for- for the vanadium pentoxide (WOOJIN) and – Michael Washbourne

Page 56 NOVeMBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT