"Baja is in discussions with a number of parties interested in off take of potential production," Baja Mining stated.
What makes the manganese case especially compelling for Baja Mining is that manganese, used in steel-making, has so far gone unaccounted for in economic outlines of Boleo.
In a 2010 update to its Boleo feasibility study, Baja Mining only considered copper, cobalt and zinc production, but not manganese. As configured without manganese, Baja Mining plans to produce 84 million pounds copper, 3.6 million pounds zinc and 28,400 tonnes zinc a year over a 23-year minelife.
In so doing Baja Mining suggested it could fetch a $1.3 billion net present value, after tax and discounted at eight percent, and then a 26 percent internal rate of return. To get there Baja Mining used $2.91 per pound copper, $26.85 per pound cobalt and $0.53 per pound zinc.
At those prices Baja Mining estimated a particularly favourable cost of production: negative $0.29 per pound copper, net of zinc and cobalt credits.
Yet that cash cost did not include the potential production and sale of manganese, which "could lower production costs in terms of copper per pound even more." By how much - or alternatively if manganese helps the base case at all - will become clearer in a manganese production study set to be released in the third quarter this year.
If Baja Mining's resources are a guide, the manganese stream could end up making a hefty chunk of the Boleo project's output. All told Boleo weighs in at 265 million tonnes @ 0.76 percent copper, 0.06 percent cobalt, 0.64 percent zinc and 3.23 percent manganese in measured and indicated resources.
While the economics of manganese mining for Baja Mining remain to be seen, the authors of a recent study looking at metallurgical recovery scenarios for Boleo dropped a sizeable figure when it came to its potential production. The research team, which included Baja Mining's vice president of metallurgy, David Dreisinger, suggested Baja Mining might produce some 220,000 tonnes of manganese carbonate a year at Boleo.
As I said before these are mind boggleing figures. Do the math!
