technical report on the nechalacho deposit, thor lake project ...

Table 18-52 Summer Freight Costs
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. – Thor Lake Project
1,000 tpd 2,000 tpd
Surface Costs of Freight Handle 525,720 1,051,440
Board 24,000 48,000
Barging 2,645,438 5,290,876
Set up 66,200 66,200
Extra Time for Barge to Fuel 224,188 373,646
Annual Dock Installation and
Removal
600,917 600,917
Total 4,086,462 7,431,078
Cost per tonne $11.20 $10.18
The surface costs at Thor Lake include the costs to move full containers from the mill to a yard
at Great Slave Lake and then load them onto the barges. Empty containers at Thor Lake are
unloaded to a yard at Great Slave Lake and then hauled by truck to the mill site. The process is
reversed at Pine Point but in each case the containers must be loaded or offloaded from the
barges, moved to a temporary location near the dock and then rehandled by loading onto a
truck for relocation to the plant site. This work will be seasonal but will require heavy lift forklifts
and transport trucks at both Pine Point and Thor Lake.
At 1,000 tpd and based on the forecast concentrate production there will be 12 barge trips per
season. Based on a cycle time of 32 hours for sailing and docking with a 20% contingency on
the time there will be 19 days of sailing time per season plus an estimated six days of standby
for weather delays. Barge costs are based on charter rates of C$27,500 per day for the tug and
C$3,000 per barge per day. It is estimated that with the barges serving as docks there will be
19 barges under charter. The barge costs of C$2.65 million per season include C$1.64 million
for operating charter time, C$0.43 million for standby and delays and C$0.50 million for annual
mobilization of the barges and tug.
In addition the extra travel for fuel trips will add C$224,000 per season and the delivery and set
up of the barge docks at Pine Point and Thor Lake will cost C$600,000 per year. Fuel will come
in on barges loaded at Hay River, this will require an extra leg on several voyages per season to
go from Pine Point to Hay River for fuel. At Thor Lake the fuel will be offloaded to storage tanks
at Great Slave Lake. From there the fuel will be hauled by fuel trucks to the main storage tank
farm at Thor Lake. It is estimated the barges can take approximately two million litres of fuel
each so that 6 million litres can be brought in at a time.
Technical Report 43-101 – March 13, 2011 Page 18-131
Prepared by Avalon Rare Metals Inc.