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| Deeply-Rooted Explorations For New Molybdenum Projects Successively Come Up |
| = New Projects Are Being Developed In Australia, Mexico, Chile, And So On |
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Being sustained by the steeply risen prices of molybdenum products, new molybdenum projects are being activated in such western regions as North America, South America and Australia, and many of these new projects are scheduled to materialize in 2009 to 2011. In order to develop additional molybdenum projects, many plans to explore molybdenum resources are successively coming up. New molybdenum project has been understood that it will take normally 5 years and partially 10 years as a long way to complete the process, which starts exploration and, after its feasibility study ( FS ) is carried out, commences operation. This is the same case as that of other mineral resources. In case of molybdenum, many projects are proceeded in parallel with the plans to develop copper resources for hedging price risk. New molybdenum projects, scheduled to start its operations in 2009 to 2011, have included only few primary molybdenum mines located in North America. Namely, new projects to produce molybdenum at primary molybdenum mines are (1) Freeport-McMoRan has planned to resume molybdenum production at the Climax open-pit mine from 2010 ( to produce 30 million lbs. / year of molybdenum in concentrate ), (2) Thompson Creek Metals has held two molybdenum projects ( consisting of <> expansion of capacity at the Thompson mine / USA to materialize in 2008 to 2011 and <> rationalization at the Endako mine / Canada and new development at the Davidson mine / Canada ) and (3) General Moly is scheduled to commence molybdenum production at the Mount Hope mine / Idaho state - USA from 2010( to produce 26.0 million lbs. / year of molybdenum in concentrate ). Other projects are developed to produce molybdenum at copper - molybdenum complex mines. The locations of molybdenum deposits, being currently explored, have concentrated on Mexico, Australia and Chile and these project have aimed to produce molybdenum in parallel with copper production at complex mines. New molybdenum projects to be explored are as per the table attached hereto. Many of these new projects have targeted to develop molybdenum resources in Mexico and Australia, where are so far not explored. Many of new molybdenum projects, scheduled to start molybdenum production in 2009 to 2011, have planned to utilize considerable parts of the existing infrastructure and this arrangement has the advantage to be able to reduce costs for development as much as possible. The cash cost for molybdenum production is <> at the Climax open-pit mine / USA : US$3.15 per lb. of Mo and <> at the Endako mine / Canada : US$7.93 per lb. of Mo. As regards new molybdenum projects under exploration at present, how extent possible to reduce the cash cost for molybdenum production depends on the possibilities to utilize and fit out with the existing infrastructure. Also, the matter in question is how long is the current higher prices of molybdenum products able to maintain and, on the assumption that price of molybdenum oxide in 2012 and afterwards will be higher than US$14 per lb. of Mo, Thompson Creek Metals has launched to expand and rationalize facilities at the existing mines and, furthermore, to develop new molybdenum resources, Under the present situation, the cash cost for molybdenum production at mines under operation is lower than US$10 per lb. of Mo even for primary molybdenum mines and, therefore, primary mines have kept enough power to be competitive on sales. It goes without saying that the current price of molybdenum oxide has risen to a higher level of US$33 per lb. of Mo and this higher price of molybdenum is completely profitable for mines. The undertaking companies, which have been proceeding their plans to explore molybdenum deposits, have targeted to acquire a firm footing of exploration in the course of 2008 and are supposed to aim at materialization of new molybdenum projects in a later time than 2010 instead of the next generation. |
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| last modified : Thu 03 Apr, 2008 [11:09] |
