Orpheus recommences production at B2 project
Thursday, September 27 2012 - 01:28 AM WIB
ASX-listed Orpheus Energy announced that its Indonesian mining contractor PT Debbia Mining has completed the removal of overburden and exposed coal at its 51 percent owned B2 project in East Kalimantan enabling the company to ramp up production to 30,000 tons per month.
Coal will be transported by trucks to the nearby barge loading facility at Tampang Village, 27 km away from the mine site.
Under the life of mine arrangement with PT Debbia Mining, Orpheus will receive a royalty of net US$8 per ton of coal sold, and at the expected production rate this will earn Orpheus US$240,000 per month.
The current JORC coal resource at the B2 project of 0.95Mt indicated and 0.l8Mt inferred will provide an initial mine life of approximately three years.
The current mine plan allows for PT Debbia Mining to move to the adjacent B6 project which currently contains an exploration target of 1.5Mt to 2.5Mt and calorific value of 5,950 to 6,850 kcal/kg as B2 coal reserves are depleted.
Executive Chairman, Wayne Mitchell said, ?We are very happy with our mining contractor?s positive progress at B2. Once we reach our 30,000tpm target production rate, the company will be in a cash-flow positive situation, which gives us the flexibility to focus on rapidly developing our other near-term production projects. We look forward to reporting to our shareholders coal sales revenue milestones over the next few months.?
Editing by Adianto P. Simamora