Jan 3 2011
Northland Resources S.A. (TSX:NAU)(FRANKFURT:NPK)(OSLO:NAUR) has announced that on December 20, 2010, the Company submitted an Exploitation Concession application to the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy for the Hannukainen iron Oxide-Copper-Gold project.
The area applied for in the Exploitation Concession covers approximately 5,400 hectares. Northland management have applied the same rigour as they used when the exploitation concession was requested for the Tapuli and Sahavaara mines. The exploitation concession application is a critical step in obtaining the right to mine.
At the same time, the Company started the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") process for the Hannukainen project by submitting the EIA programme to the Finnish Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment on December 22, 2010. The objective of the EIA process is to ensure that the environmental and social aspects of the project are thoroughly assessed and that information on the potential impact is made available so that they can be taken into consideration during project planning and decision making. In addition, throughout the process, interested and affected local stakeholders will be provided with relevant information on the project, and they will have the opportunity to participate by providing feedback.
Northland expects to complete a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") for the Hannukainen IOCG project during 2011. The EIA process will be undertaken in parallel and in close cooperation with the preparation of the Hannukainen DFS.
In May 2010, Northland released the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment for Hannukainen that found the project technically feasible and financially positive. The results included a NPV of 471 MUSD and IRR of 32.5% based on a long-term prices of USD 1.10/dtmu Fe, USD 2.20/pound copper and USD 850/ounce gold. The project has a very competitive OPEX of USD 26.36 per tonne for the first ten years. With production capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum, production is scheduled to begin in 2014/2015.