Lion One Metals Limited is pleased to announce important news on the continued progress of the development of its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Gold Project in Fiji. The Company has issued a tender for underground mining services and has received competing bids for the EPC contract and fabrication of the Tuvatu processing plant and construction of the supporting infrastructure.
The Company expects to award the Underground Mining Contract following agreement of final terms and conditions. The Mining Contract will be for an initial period of 18 months to perform the following activities:
- Enlarge the exploration portal and construct a new production portal
- Slash the existing exploration decline
- Complete the majority of the decline and level development including ventilation raises
- Stope production in available levels
The Company also announces that in addition to the ongoing detailed engineering design by Yantai Jinpeng Engineering (see news release dated May 9, 2017), it has received three competing bids for final engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for the Tuvatu processing plant and supporting infrastructure. The bids are for the construction of a new 210,000 tonne per annum carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold ore processing facility to be fabricated in China to western standards and Fijian Building Code. In addition to the processing plant, the EPC contract is expected to include the following supporting infrastructure:
- The dry stack tailings storage
- Primary diesel power generation system
- Assay lab
- Water supply and water treatment infrastructure
- Truck shop, warehouse, dry, and other operations infrastructure
- Central administration complex
It is envisaged that the EPC contract will be signed as soon as agreement is achieved on final terms and conditions to allow work to proceed quickly. The Company is currently completing the final bulk earthworks design as it intends to start excavation on the mill site to be followed by commencement of mining.
“These developments have run concurrently with our efforts to conclude funding arrangements for the project and will enable full-scale mining, stockpiling, and underground development to begin in tandem with critical path components of the EPC contract,” said Lion One CEO Walter Berukoff. “We look forward to providing further guidance with respect to scheduling in due course.”
Exploration and infill drilling continues with two drills on site. Assay results are pending in the next few weeks.
For complete information, visit www.liononemetals.com
