Olympia Resources to complete C. Kalimantan zircon processing plant construction
Thursday, November 1 2007 - 03:10 AM WIB
KALIMANTAN ZIRCON PROJECT
In September 2007 the Company signed agreements to acquire the land and equipment for a 15,000 tonnes per year (tpy) zircon concentrate processing plant in Sampit in Central Kalimantan.
Construction of the processing plant is under way and is planned to be completed and commissioned in November this year. The cost of the Sampit land and processing plant will be paid for out of existing cash reserves.
Sampit is geographically central to the mineral sand mining areas of Kalimantan, and near to mineral sand bearing ground being explored by Olympia.
The Sampit plant site fronts onto the Sampit River, where the plant?s licensed wharf can take coastal vessels of up to 3,700 tonnes which allows for bulk shipping of product direct from the plant to customers. Alternatively, 19km by road from the processing site is the Port of Sampit which has container loading facilities for shipping of bagged product in sea containers.
Until Olympia has its own mine in production, zircon concentrate will be purchased off artisan miners in Central Kalimantan.
At the maximum feed rate of 15,000 tpy of typical Kalimantan concentrate the Sampit processing plant will produce the following:
Zircon 10,000 tpy
Ilmenite 650 tpy
Rutile + Leucoxene 400 tpy
Gold 1,000 ounces per year
The demand for zircon remains strong and Olympia has received many enquiries from prospective customers in China, Southeast Asia, Europe and South America for the high quality Kalimantan zircon. Olympia sees no problem in selling zircon from the plant at world competitive prices.
On current market prices the above products from the Sampit plant will give a total gross sales revenue of approximately AUD$10 million per year.
Bati Bati Plant
Finalisation of approvals is now close, which will allow work to commence at the Bati Bati site. The Bati Bati plant is much larger than the Sampit plant and will treat a maxiumum of approximately 38,000 tpy of concentrate producing 25,000 tpy of zircon as well as 2,500 ounces of gold and byproduct rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite.
Exploration
Olympia?s exploration program in Indonesia has focused on mapping the distribution of zircon and gold in Central Kalimantan, identifying areas of high exploration potential, and securing exploration ground. Olympia is increasing its number of drilling teams from one to four and plans to carry out a major drilling program over the next six months. (end of excerpt)