Jul 3 2014
MagIndustries Corp. ("MagIndustries" or the "Company") today announced that it has filed an update to its National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report entitled Update of the NI 43-101 Technical Report for MagMineral's Mengo Permit Area, Kouilou Region, Republic of Congo (the "Technical Report") in respect of the property owned by its 90% owned subsidiary MagMinerals Potasses Congo SA. ("MPC"), previously described in the Company's press release of November 14, 2013.
The Technical Report relates to the geology and development of the Company's proposed 1.2 million tonnes K60 product per annum Mengo Potash Project in the Republic of Congo (the "Project"). The authors of the Technical Report are EurGeol Dr. Henry Rauche, EurGeol Dr. Sebastiaan van der Klauw, and EUR ING Ralf Linsenbarth of ERCOSPLAN Ingenieurgesellschaft Geotechnik und Bergbau mbH (collectively "ERCOSPLAN").
The update announced today arises because during the preparation of the original technical report incorrect information was provided to ERCOSPLAN with respect to energy costs, a key input to calculating operating costs and therefore a material factor in determining the economic merits of the Project. Specifically, energy costs were overstated in the original technical report announced on November 14, 2013 because of a double counting of the natural gas requirement for process heat and on-site co-generation of electricity. On the basis of the data then available operating costs before sustaining capital expenditures were estimated to be US$109.81 per tonne of production. On the basis of the corrected data operating costs are estimated to be US$75.97 per tonne.
Estimated Operating Expenditures
As reported in the Company's press release dated November 14, 2013, the annual operating expenditures ("OPEX") for full production had been previously estimated at US$131.8 million annually for the production of 1.2 mtpy of a K60 product. The corrected estimate of OPEX for full production is US$91.16 million annually for the production of 1.2 mtpy of a K60 product. This equates to approximately US$76/tonne of KCl. These operating costs include estimates for labour, maintenance, power and steam generation, consumables, diesel, product transport to port and indirect OPEX. Sustaining capital expenditures have been estimated for the operation at US$4.6 million annually or approximately US$3.83/tonne.
Assuming a nominal discount rate of 10%, the economic analysis based on the corrected OPEX estimate yielded a pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of US$1.607 billion; an after-tax project NPV of US$1.303 billion with an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 24.4% before tax and 23.5% after tax; and a payback period within 9 years of project start (or Year 8 of production), based on potash prices of US$380/tonne FOB. These metrics were previously reported as an NPV of US$1.263 billion before tax and US$1.002 billion after tax; and an IRR of 21.6% before tax and 20.6% after tax; with payback achieved within year 10 of the Project considering discounted cash flows.
The Technical Report has been filed on https://www.sedar.com/homepage_en.htm under the Company's profile. Other than the information referred to above the Technical Report remains unchanged from that which was announced in the Company's November 14, 2013 press release. This press release provides only a summary of the information set forth in the Technical Report and readers should review the full Technical Report for additional information.
The authors of the Technical Report, EurGeol Dr. Henry Rauche, EurGeol Dr. Sebastiaan van der Klauw, and EUR ING Ralf Linsenbarth of ERCOSPLAN are the Qualified Perons with respect to the Technical Report and have reviewed and approved the contents of this press release.
About MagIndustries Corp.
MagIndustries is a Canadian company whose common shares are listed on the TSX and trade in Canadian currency under the symbol "MAA". The Company has 755,942,674 common shares outstanding. MagIndustries is focused on the development of its potash assets in the Republic of Congo. More information on the Company is available on its website, www.magindustries.com.