Projects & Operations - Project Development

NMC has commenced recruitment of an operational management team who will supervise the development aspects of the project and then conduct operations. A three to four-year mining project is planned for the Shinas-Hatta deposits followed by development of the Ghuzayn deposits south of Sohar.

Project implementation requires NMC to secure a final Environment Permit for the whole project, grant of Mining Leases and then development permission from local Municipalities and Government utilities.

NMC will undertake a memorandum of understanding with OMCO to secure cooperation and use of OMCO facilities and utilities during process plant construction and subsequent operations at Lasail.

We propose to setup a small analytical laboratory onsite for process control, mine grade control and exploration assaying.

NMC also intends to arrange an Offtake agreement for the concentrate with OMCO, however they have decided to blend the NMC material with +30% Cu imported concentrate, which means that some of NMC’s product will be traded offshore through the new Sohar port.

Waste disposal of process tailings is a major issue with the Government. Through cooperation between NMC and government ministries a suitable site has been selected. Detailed design work is currently underway with preliminary approval and construction to commence soon. The tailings dam will be ready for commissioning of the new mill.

We are confident that the technical merit of our proposals will win over environmental protagonists and allow grant of the final EIA Permit for this project.

Process Plant Engineering

In July 2004 NMC purchased the Lasail Concentrator and associated infrastructure from the Government entity OMCO and signed a lease Agreement over operational areas to allow NMC consultants to evaluate the plant condition and permit rehabilitation of the facility as well as engineer an environmentally acceptable tailings storage scheme.

OMCO will supply power, gas and domestic water, however the process water will be sourced from the abandoned Aarja mine which is also the preferred tailing storage site.

Following the Feasibility assessment by Ascentis an associated engineering group Vertex was selected in November 2004 to conduct the Engineering-Procurement-Construction-Management. This company was later released and McNally Bharat of India was brought in to complete the engineering design and assist with procurement and construction supervision.

There have been many delays to the project due to operational and permitting issues. These have been mostly overcome with the new incoming management team. It is expected that the mill will be commissioned in November 2006, producing copper before the end of the year.

Metallurgy

Testwork on a number ore type blends from the three main deposits was conducted to simulate the characteristics of ores to be processed at various stages in the development schedule. Results were very encouraging because the blended ores gave a similar and in some cases better recovery of copper to concentrate than the previous tests. This provides confidence that blending or ores to provide a more uniform plant input will result in good operational performance. The testwork is an ongoing process to determine the optimal reagents to maximise recovery and production.
Analysis is continuing to determine ways of overcoming bottlenecks in the process produced by the treatment of higher grade ores. This has resulted in having to reduce the overall throughput of the mill. This analysis will also investigate ways to further increase the throughput beyond the original design levels.

Mine Design

To ensure good topographic control of the Hatta minesites NMC conducted orthophoto mapping using existing high-quality colour aerial photography of the area to produce a detailed contour plan in which to base its engineering design of the mining infrastructure. This was supported by accurate GPS locations of proposed building sites and existing drillholes for pit planning purposes.

Environmental approval has been obtained for the wadi bund wall road and safety bund walls around the pit perimeters as well as the waste dumps west of the Hatta pit where it is proposed to site a crusher to produce aggregate and industrial stone from these Hatta area mine site layout wall rocks.

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