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F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 7 www.resourceworld.com 69 joint venture partner with the financing and or experienced team to build the mine, which is not as desirable, as the original owner will have to give up a significant amount of ownership to attract the new partner. The third option is for the company to build the mine itself, whereby it will need to raise funds (financing) through equity (shares), debt such as loans, convertible debentures, royalty streams, smelter off- take agreements or some combination. Assuming that the financing is in place, the project owner needs to hire a person to manage the project through to commis - sioning of the mine and potentially become the General Manager (GM) of the ongoing operation. This person should have expe- rience in managing these types of projects and preferably have operations experience to mine manager level. The GM will hire several persons, the "Owner's Team" to assist in managing the actual building of the mine and related aspects such as envi - ronmental, permitting, human resources and First Nations communications. Alternatively, the GM could engage a man- agement company to act as the "Owner's Representative" with a team in place that will manage most of the aspects required to build the mine. The key components for actually building the mine are engi - neering, procurement and construction management (EPCM). There are large firms that carry out all of this work and smaller individual consulting firms that can do the work in conjunction with associates. The Owner's Team or Representative selects, engages and manages all of the consultants and contractors required to build the mine and will need to be in place through the EPCM phase, including commissioning of the process plant. Once the mine Owner's Team or Representative is in place and has engaged the consultants and contractors to carry out all aspects of building the mine, work will begin to build the mine based on the design, plan and schedule developed in the FS. The construction of roads, rail, air - strips or ports to access the mine plus the services such as water, sewage and power will begin, with much of this work simi- lar to the work required for establishing other types of industries except that this construction could be in remote areas with added logistical challenges. Construction of ancillary buildings such as the office, maintenance shop, warehouse, employee camp, and kitchen/ cafeteria is also similar to other industries. The key difference in construction is the mine itself, the crushing and processing plant, the tailings storage facility, perma - nent waste storage areas, in particular, if the waste is considered to be acid gen- erating. For remote mine sites, it may be necessary to charter helicopters and/or private planes of various sizes to bring in equipment and personnel. The FS will include base line studies of all environmental aspects to determine what the current environment is for the habitat of all living things and the long- term impact of building a mine. The quantity and quality of all ore and waste to be mined plus tailings will have been determined with regard to the potential to generate acid and other deleterious metals plus how to treat these issues while oper - ating and at closure. The quantity and quality of water used during operation, the requirement for long-term treatment will have been determined. The work carried out for the FS is the basis for submitting plans for all permits required to obtain a licence to start mining. In Canada, there are two levels of permitting, provincial and federal. For smaller mines that do not have a significant impact on fisheries and waterways or international boundaries, only provincial permitting is required. For larger mines, both provincial and federal permitting is required. What is called social licence to operate is now high on the list of risks in building a mine. Without approval from all stake - holders that will be impacted by the mine, governments will not provide approval to build the mine. Permitting includes a full closure plan for the end of the mine. In Canada, consultation is required with First Nations prior to granting a licence to develop a mine. This has complicated the permitting process, adding time, costs and risk to the process. Development of the mine itself will be quite different for an open pit than an underground mine and will require differ - ent experience and equipment. Porphyry deposits are often large and many of the current deposits are near surface, thus are mined as open pits with large mining equipment; however, at depth some may have suitable characteristics to convert to large underground block caving mines. Vein type deposits are often narrow, can go to depth and are mined by underground methods with smaller equipment. Operating costs are normally a function of the size of the equipment used for the mining method. Thus, open pits with large equipment have lower operating costs than underground mines. The grade of ore that can be mined is a function of the operat - ing costs. Thus, the lower the operating costs, the lower the grade of ore that can be mined. An open pit requires large equipment used to mine large quantities of ore and waste with overburden of soil stripped before the start of the pit. Sufficient over - burden is stripped and waste is mined, at a large capital cost, at the beginning, to provide the start to the open pit with the first benches of ore exposed and mined to sustain the process plant at capacity once the plant has started up. The min - ing method and equipment for an open pit mine is determined by the type of deposit, shape, size, and depth. The key pit design parameters are the slope of the walls, the bench heights and widths, the location of the road access for equipment and sizing of the equipment. The underground mining method and operating rate chosen in the FS is mainly dependent on the thickness of the ore, the orientation (flat to vertical), the stability of the ore and the host rock, in particular the walls adjacent to the ore. Historic mining methods included a lot of timber support LEFT: Goldcorp's Cerro Negro Mine in southern Argentine. Miners inside the Eureka vein Photo courtesy Goldcorp Inc.