BY PAUL HERRIDGE
The Southern Gazette
Canada Fluorspar Inc. CEO Lindsay Gorrill indicated the company’s proposed fluorspar project in St. Lawrence continues to remain on track.
If all goes according to plan, he suggested production at the site could begin in about two years time.
The company announced last week the federal and provincial governments have issued the Environmental Assessment guidelines for the project.
Mr. Gorill suggested there were no unexpected shocks contained in the guidelines, which combine provincial requirements for an Environmental Preview Report (EPR) and federal requirements for a Screening Level Environmental Assessment (SLEA) into one document.
“We’ve been in communication with the environmental agencies for a year almost. We’ve done a lot of studies already over the last year to get prepared for this report, so when the guidelines came out we were basically happy; they were as we thought they would be. Nothing came out that was a surprise.”
He indicated the end of October – set as the goal to submit the final environmental documents – is the next deadline to meet.
“If we get our documents filed by the end of October, then it’s about a 45-day process for review. We believe, hopefully, we’ll be successful and then by the middle of December we would get clearance and then we would file for permits to start construction.
“That would take three months, so we’d be able to start construction by April or May ’010 and that’s in line with our plans.”
The construction phase, expected to take about a year-and-a-half, would include work on the mine, an upgrade to the existing mill, a new deep-sea wharf, which the provincial government committed $10 million towards earlier, and other infrastructure to store the product and then transport it dockside.
All told, Mr. Gorrill acknowledged the project would cost in the range of an estimated $60 million.
“Based on our analysis, we think 18 months is enough time to build.”
The market for fluorspar was strong a couple of years ago. He noted, as with most commodities, consumption of the mineral has experienced a slowdown in the past six months.
However, he believes circumstances will have rebounded by 2011.
“We’re finding now that the fluorspar consumption is starting to pick up again. We’re targetting two-and-a-half-years from today, basically, and based on no new supply, consumption in China starting to take off again … we see that, by late ’011, we think that the same situation that was in ’07, which was pretty good, solid prices in fluorspar and demand and supply equal, that we’ll be in very good shape to come into the market.”
The project, estimated to create 150 full-time jobs in St. Lawrence once operational, would produce a total capacity between 120,000 and 180,000 tons of acidspar per year, or about 2.5 per cent of the world market for that particular type of fluorspar – a decent-sized portion of a US $1.6 billion lucrative pie.
With just about seven months before the anticipated construction startup date, Mr. Gorrill remained optimistic the project will remain on schedule.
“We set out a pretty good plan back in early ’08 before we did our first financing, and if you look at some of my earlier stuff when I projected what we’re going to be doing at certain points of the year over the next three years, we’re within maybe a month of some of those dates. So we’re in pretty good shape.”
Burin Minerals preparing for environmental assessment process
BY PAUL HERRIDGE
The Southern Gazette - 24/02/2009
Burin Minerals Ltd. is preparing to take another step towards the proposed reactivation of the fluorspar mine in St. Lawrence. An open house was scheduled to take place at the recreation centre in the community last evening. General Manager Phonce Cooper indicated the company’s consultants organized the session as the effort begins in the coming weeks to register and start the environmental assessment process with the federal and provincial governments. He stressed the consultation was simply a part of the process and an opportunity for the public to come out and express any concerns they might have, regarding potential environmental impacts of re-opening the mine. “Like the tailings, and we’re talking about a deep-water port, a new port in the outer St. Lawrence Harbour – those are basically the two main components in the environmental assessment process.” Mr. Cooper acknowledged the procedure can be long and drawn out, which makes it necessary to complete while other work is ongoing. “If we had to wait until we complete our feasibility work and find out whether we definitely got a decision to go forward with production, then it would take us probably another eight months to a year to do the environmental assessment.” He indicated the company would be able to give the public a general idea as to what the project might look like, although much of the details are conceptual at this point and are contingent on a number of factors.