Cominco Resources Ltd (“Cominco”) is a privately held Company and through its wholly owned subsidiary, Cominco SA, owns 100% of the “Hinda Project”. The Hinda Project includes the Hinda and Kola Tchikanou phosphate exploration licenses that cover 2,069 km2 of the coastal basin in the Republic of Congo (“ROC”), also known as Congo-Brazzaville (as distinct and separate from the unrelated Democratic Republic of Congo).

Cominco is developing an open cut mine and processing facility just 37km from the port city of Pointe-Noire. After beneficiation, 4Mt/yr of high grade phosphate rock concentrate will be pumped 43km by buried slurry pipeline to a new port facility at Pointe-Indienne, immediately north of Pointe-Noire city and port. The port facility will provide drying, storage and ship-loading for vessels up to 60,000 dwt.

The Definitive Feasibility Study for the Project has been completed.  The Project comprises a world-class, JORC compliant phosphate Reserve of 404.9 Mt grading 11% P2O5 with a 24 year Life of Mine, for 4.1Mt of high grade, 32% P2O5 per year. It was led by Ausenco Engineers and SRK Consulting.

This follows the publication in November 2013 of the Advanced Prefeasibility Study, completed by Tenova Bateman Technologies (“BAT”), which confirmed the world class standing of the Hinda Project. To read more about the Definitive Feasibility Study, please visit our Project Status web page. Further detail on the progress from greenfield exploration target to development project can be found on the Project History Page.

A Front End Engineering Study (“FEED”) will start in Q4 2015, and culminating in construction commencing in 2016.

Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA)” baseline studies are underway, managed by WSP (formerly Genivar). The ESIA will be completed to meet the Equator Principles (2013) and International Finance Corporation “IFC” Performance Standards (2012).

Cominco administrative head office is in Pointe-Noire, RoC, with a services office in London, UK.  An operational base is maintained in the Hinda Project License approximately 37 km from Point-Noire on Highway N1.

Introduction

Cominco Resources has completed the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Hinda Phosphate Project. The Project comprises a world-class, JORC compliant phosphate Reserve of 404.9 Mt grading 11% P2O5 with a 24 year Life of Mine, for 4.1Mt of high grade, 32% P2O5 per year.

Operating costs over the first five years are $36.6 per tonne of Ore, placing the Project in the lowest quartile of cash cost producers. The Project development cost totals $601M and includes all necessary services and infrastructure to build and commission the Project. Capital repayment is expected within 26 months. The Project mine site is located only 40km from the Atlantic Coast and the port city of Pointe-Noire. Accessibility and infrastructure are excellent with a dual lane, tarmac highway within 15km of the mine site, high voltage power lines within 15 km of the beneficiation plant and West Africa’s largest container port at Pointe-Noire, as well as an international airport with daily flights to Europe and South Africa.

Bulk, strip mining of the Ore, which is entirely free digging, will be at an average rate of 20 Mt of Ore a year. The Ore will be crushed in pit before being conveyed to a beneficiation plant by overland conveyor. The design allows for secondary crushing, followed by removal of barren material by rejecting the coarse and very fine material. The following grinding and flotation stages only treat around 9 Mt a year at a steady 19% P2O5. Two-stage reverse flotation produces a high quality, 32% phosphate rock. The Phosrock concentrate is transferred to the Project’s port facility by slurry pipeline where the product is dewatered, dried and stored before loading from a trestle jetty and ship loader.

The Project has been subject to a 929 hole drilling campaign by Cominco to support the Mineral Reserve and Resource as well as geotechnical, hydrogeological and other development needs.

The DFS was coordinated and managed by Ausenco who had responsibility for the metallurgical test work, design and costing of the beneficiation plant, slurry pipeline, port site and ship loading facilities. SRK (UK) provided the JORC Compliant Ore Reserve Statement, mine design and schedules and mine capital and operating cost estimates, along with all other pit related technical studies.

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, managed by WSP, to World Bank, Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards will be complete by September 2015.

The mining license application was lodged with Congolese authorities in October 2014 and will be granted shortly

Mining

The 100% free dig open-pit mining operation uses conventional truck and shovel with a short haul to an in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) system.

In a ‘strip-mining style’ the pit will be mined to full depth of economic mineralisation and then advanced northwest along strike, allowing for the continual backfill of waste in the void.

The truck and shovel operation will consist of:

•Initially two 550 t CAT6050BH backhoes operating in Ore and overburden, followed by the addition of two CAT6060FS AC electric face shovels operating in overburden commencing in Year 5 and 7 when the third and fourth shovels are required to meet production.

•Initially 12, 193t payload haul trucks, peaking at 30

•Customised 31 m3 shovel buckets and light weight truck trays specific to the site material characteristics, (principally low abrasivity)

•A development fleet of articulated trucks used for construction works to support the mine operations. These activities include, tailings dam construction; surface water diversion, building of the Ore conveyor access corridor; site works to support the IPCC, road construction and maintenance and topsoil stripping and stockpiling and subsequent placement for rehabilitation.

The Ore IPCC system will be relocated along strike approximately every 12 months. This keeps the haulage distance between the advancing dig face and the crusher short, and allows for cheap transportation of the material back to the beneficiation plant site.