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 Learn more about the Birch Lake Community Project |
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  Location
The 14,789 acre Birch Lake project lies along the western margin of the Duluth Mineral Complex, approximately 80 miles north-northeast of Duluth, Minnesota and about 7 miles east-northeast of Babbitt, Minnesota. Its proximity to the Minnesota Iron Range provides extensive infrastructure including sources of water, electric power, mining labor and professionals, equipment suppliers and a well-developed road and rail transportation network linking the area to the port of Duluth on Lake Superior. Resources Franconia's extensive land package, the largest in the district, encompasses three copper-nickel-PGM resources (subject to Resource Estimates & Preliminary Economic Assessments prepared to NI 43-101 standards):
PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDIES: Prefeasibility work is currently focused on the development of the Birch Lake and the Maturi Resources. Exploration has revealed a 75-foot thick mineralized zone at the Birch Lake Resource that occurs approximately 1,800 feet beneath the surface and three miles northwest at the Maturi property, another 75-foot thick, dipping mineralized zone that extends form 175 feet to 2000 feet beneath the surface. The current pre-feasibility studies are aimed at evaluating the viability of separate mines at Birch Lake and Maturi that would feed a single processing complex built near the Birch Lake deposit. While neither Birch Lake nor Maturi has been fully drilled out, the combined resource currently has the potential to generate annual production of 74 million pounds (lbs) copper, 19 million lbs nickel, 2.9 million lbs cobalt, 7,400 ounces (oz) gold, 33,000 oz platinum and 68,000 oz palladium over a mine life of about 25 years. More than 500 jobs would be created over the life of the operation. BIRCH LAKE INFERRED RESOURCE - 100.4 MILLION TONNES (NI 43-101 compliant)
Metal price assumptions: copper $1.50/lb; nickel $6.00/lb; cobalt $10.00/lb; palladium $300/oz; platinum $800/oz; gold $450/oz. MATURI INFERRED RESOURCE - 83.1 MILLION TONNES (NI 43-101 compliant)
Metal price assumptions: copper $1.50/lb; nickel $6.00/lb; cobalt $10.00/lb; palladium $300/oz; platinum $800/oz; gold $450/oz. PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT The economic assessment was prepared by Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates (Scott Wilson RPA) to NI 43-101 standards, and are available on SEDAR. (All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated.) The scenario considered in the economic assessment includes:
Franconia is close to completing drilling a series of pilot holes and the collection of of material for pilot plant runs of both concentration and hydrometallurgical processes at Birch Lake (45 tonnes are required from Birch Lake and Maturi combined). A similar drill program is expected to be completed at Maturi in 2008. These drill programs will provide in-fill and delineation drilling to better quantify the resource and allow pre-feasibility level mine planning. The entire program will also help the Birch Lake project to move towards final feasibility determination and with the State's environmental review and permitting process. SPRUCE ROAD Franconia also controls the Spruce Road resource, located about 5 miles east northeast of Maturi. Spruce Road is not part of the Company's ongoing pre-feasibility program but it dramatically expands the long-term potential for the Birch Lake Project. Spruce Road was the subject of surface drilling, bulk sampling, metallurgical testing and a pre-feasibility study by American Copper & Nickel Co. between the 1950s and 1970s. Spruce Road was the subject of an engineering study by Bechtel Corporation in 1967. The current estimate is based on 220 surface drill holes. Franconia has yet to initiate its own work programs to confirm the historical data but based on ACNC's work Franconia has defined resource estimates for both underground and open pit scenarios for the Spruce Road copper-nickel deposit, part of the Birch Lake Project in Minnesota. The estimates show an underground Inferred Resource at Spruce Road of 124.4 million tonnes grading 0.59% copper and 0.21% nickel and an open pit indicated resource of 377 million tonnes (see table).
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