Cadence Minerals has secured a Licença Prévia (LP), or preliminary environmental licence, for the Amapá Mine in Brazil from the Secretaria de Estado do Meio Ambiente, Amapá’s state environmental company.
The LP verifies that the mine’s environmental suitability, website location and design are acceptable for working at its full deliberate capability of 5.5 million tonnes every year (mtpa) of direct reduced-grade iron ore focus.
This approval applies to open-pit mining, mineral processing, waste rock administration and tailings storage services inside the venture’s present mining concessions.
The Amapá iron ore venture is a totally built-in operation, with current mine, rail, port and beneficiation infrastructure in place.
It accommodates a Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC)-compliant mineral useful resource of 276 million tonnes (mt) at 38% iron and a confirmed and possible ore reserve of 195.8mt at 39.34% iron.
The LP covers the complete mine improvement plan somewhat than simply an preliminary or momentary working stage, offering regulatory assurance for the long-term mine format that underpins Cadence Minerals’ phased redevelopment technique.
It additionally supplies the important thing regulatory foundation for allowing the Azteca processing plant, which is because of be recommissioned as the primary manufacturing unit within the staged restart.
Through the Azteca restart, ore is predicted to be trucked and exported by way of an current public port, which means preliminary manufacturing can start with out ready for rail infrastructure and a personal port to be licensed.
The LP constitutes the primary formal step in Brazil’s environmental licensing framework for the mine and marks a major risk-reduction milestone for the venture.
The next section is the Licença de Instalação (LI), or set up licence, which can allow building, refurbishment and set up of mine infrastructure, together with the processing plant and tailings services.
Cadence Minerals CEO Kiran Morzaria mentioned: “It is a extremely important regulatory milestone for Amapá. The grant of the preliminary licence confirms environmental acceptance of the mine at its full supposed scale and marks a decisive step ahead within the venture’s redevelopment.
“Importantly, the LP validates the entire mine plan and supplies the regulatory basis to advance the Azteca processing plant as step one towards manufacturing. With this key de-risking milestone achieved, our focus now turns to securing the set up licence and progressing refurbishment actions according to our staged improvement technique.”
Development to the LI relies on assembly particular technical and regulatory circumstances beforehand outlined by the corporate.