Mining Company research board

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This is why a feasibility study is so important.

They don't always come back positive.

Globe withdraws from 'uneconomical' Moz project

Junior Globe Metals and Mining has abandoned the Mount Muambe rare earth elements project, in Mozambique, after a conceptual feasibility study proved that the project was uneconomical.

Globe said on Tuesday that the indicative study demonstrated that the current fluorite resource would require a capital investment of about $50-million, and would deliver operating costs of $50/t.

The resource grade was currently too low, and the mineralogy too complex to be economical, with metallurgical testwork demonstrating that commercial acid-grade product could not be achieved.

Furthermore, the likelihood of finding economic or commercially recoverable mineralisation in the current licence holding had also been assessed as unlikely.

“Not all exploration ventures result in success. The strategy with this project was to define a fluorite resource that could be used to produce acid for the Kanyika project,’ said Globe MD Alistair Stephens.

He noted that the company had undertaken all the necessary steps in the assessment of the commercial viability of the project, which resulted in a negative outcome.

“It is more viable to import fluorspar from other sources than from Mount Muambe,” Stephens added.

He said that the company was now focused on using its cash position on projects that had better potential.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/globe-withdraws-from-moz-project-2013-11-26