Contractors start FEED study at Stellar's Sierra Leone project

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the underground mine development at Aim-listed Stellar Diamonds’ Tongo-Tonguma project, in Sierra Leone, is now under way.

Stellar on Tuesday said a team of five consultants from contractors Paradigm Project Management (PPM) and SRK Consulting have arrived on site to start the various work streams related to the FEED study.

“We are pleased that the first key milestone in the mine development at Tongo-Tonguma has commenced. PPM is highly experienced in the delivery of diamond mine projects and, together with SRK, will refine all elements of the mine plan as determined in the published preliminary economic assessment to higher levels of confidence in order to reduce the project delivery risk.

“With over 66 000 m of drilling completed at the project to date, we will drill a further 9 000 m of mine plan related drilling to a depth of 75 m concurrent with the FEED study,” said Stellar CE Karl Smithson.

The main objectives of the FEED study are to better define the technical requirements of the project in order to ensure that the correct underground mine design is implemented and that the treatment plant design and layout is properly designed and the unit processes are clearly identified.

The study will also define the final capital expenditure estimate and the operating cost budgets, as well as contribute to the development of a project execution plan and a refined financial model for the project.

In addition, the project execution plan will also be developed. A refined financial model will also be developed for the mine.