IGO to record impairment against nickel assets in strategy shift
IGO has been undertaking a strategic review in an attempt to revaluate its resources.
Vancouver-based Crowflight Minerals (TSX: CML) says it will resume operations at its Bucko Lake Mine in April.
The company expects to mine 220,000 tonnes of ore in 2011, with the goal of producing about five million pounds of nickel. With nickel trading at $12 a pound, the operation would yield a $20 million cash flow in 2011, Crowflight stated in a news release Wednesday.
Capital expenditures in 2011 at Bucko Lake Mine are budgeted at $15 million, of which $6 million is for the acquisition of mining equipment, and the remaining $9 million for mine development, backfill plant upgrade, and tailing facility expansion.
The company also budgets $3.0 million exploration expenditures in 2011, including carrying out 12,000 meters of diamond drilling program at the Thompson Nickel Belt Exploration Properties with intention to upgrade the mineral resources and assess the economic potential of the M11A zone.
Mining was temporally suspended in October 2010 in order to facilitate the introduction of underground mining equipment and to make adjustments to the operation. In 2010, the company sold 2.1 million pound of nickel and reported a net loss of $34.2 million.
Along with the Bucko Lake Nickel Mine near Wabowden, Manitoba, Crowflight Minerals also holds nickel, copper and Platinum Group Mineral (PGM) projects in the Thompson Nickel Belt and Sudbury Basin.
