Feb 16 2011
Northland Resources S.A. (TSX:NAU)(FRANKFURT:NPK)(OSLO:NAUR) has announced that today, an agreement between Northland and Metso AB was signed for the long-lead items for the Tapuli process line and basic engineering for the Process Plant System for the Kaunisvaara Project.
The agreements were signed in Helsinki by Karl-Axel Waplan, President & CEO of Northland and Andrew Benko, President of Metso Mining and Construction Technology.
The parties have also signed a LOI declaring the intention to enter into a contract covering all works related to the Process Plant System in accordance with the DFS presented in September last year, but with the exception of the building structure and related civil work. The plan is to finalize this contract within a month.
"This is one of the key agreements for the Kaunisvaara Project. The access to long-lead items is of key importance to the Project. With this agreement and the LOI in place, we will be able to keep our project schedule," stated Karl-Axel Waplan, President & CEO of Northland Resources S.A. "We believe that Metso's experience in Iron Ore processing globally as well as in the region and the proposed local service and maintenance organisation in Kaunisvaara will give us significant benefits and substantially reduce the construction risks for Northland going forward."
The initial equipment long lead-time order includes a primary gyratory crusher, an autogenous grinding mill and three vertical grinding mills. The delivery is scheduled for the second quarter of 2012.
The Kaunisvaara Iron Ore Project is located in Northern Sweden, approximately 100 km north of the Arctic Circle, in the municipality of Pajala. After the completion, the annual capacity of the process plant will be 12 million tonnes of dry iron ore and 5 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate.