Polymet Mining Changes Management and Plans to Reevaluate World-Class NorthMet Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Polymet Mining Corporation (CDNX:POM) (Vancouver, British Columbia), owner of the advanced stage polymetallic NorthMet project located in Minnesota, is now under new management and should be moved into new offices in Vancouver by mid April. Formerly headquartered in Golden Colorado, the company successfully completed a prefeasibility study in 2001 under the leadership of Don Gentry.

On March 17, 2003 the board of directors of Polymet voted in a new board in an orderly transition to new management of the company. This new board is comprised of George Molyviatis, a private banker and a major shareholder of Polymet, Terry O'Kane P.Eng. who is co-inventor of the PlatSol process, which is central to the processing of concentrates at NorthMet, and William Murray P.Eng. who has also become the new President and CEO of Polymet.

In a phone interview, William Murray, President and CEO of Polymet Mining Corporation told Industrialinfo.com that the new management is in the early stages of performing a technical and commercial reevaluation of the NorthMet polymetallic project with the goal of simplifying the project and optimizing previous studies in the context of current metal markets.

The team is currently assembling a group of industry experts to reevaluate current data on the NorthMet project, optimize that data, and reduce the overall capital cost associated with the development of a project of this magnitude. The company will undergo a six-month program to redefine the economics of the project, and then hopes to attract a joint venture partner to finance and complete a feasibility study.

Capital estimates from the original prefeasibility study amounted to $630 million and a 55,000 ton per day polymetallic (Copper, Nickel, Cobalt, Zinc, and Platinum Group Metals) mine and mill complex. This is a large world-class project, but management believes it is too large and economically unattractive to investors in today's metals market. Mr. Murray goes on to state, "The new management team hopes to optimize the project and reduce the scale of the project to make it more attractive to joint venture partners and investors."

Success of the project hinges on the PlatSol process, a new technology that was developed on the back of the NorthMet project in 1999. Use of the PlatSol process on NorthMet is critical since it allows the extraction of base metals and PGM's with approximately 30% of project revenues coming from the PGM's. Mr. Murray is a strong proponent of PlatSol and believes it could revolutionize the PGM extraction process in much the same way that Solvent Extraction Electrowinning (SX/EW) revolutionized the Copper processing industry in the 1980's. It is distinctive in that it allows the economic processing of low-grade ores. Testing on South African ores and concentrates, where the process is nearing the commercialization stage, has proven PGM recovery rates in the 92-97 percent range.

The company hopes to capitalize on the recent uptake in the metals market, which has been depressed since 1997, and especially poor during the last three years. Many major mining concerns have pulled out of large new mining projects during this downturn in the market. PolyMet had the long term support of North Mining but Rio Tinto pulled its funding out of the NorthMet project about 18 months ago after it acquired North.

The new redefined project will most likely include a scaled down version of the open pit mine, milling, and concentrating plants. Copper will be processed utilizing an SX/EW system. A high value PGM sludge along with zinc, nickel, and cobalt mixed sulfides will be shipped offsite for processing. The project will be designed to be scalable.

Polymet also controls the Marathon PGM deposit located near Marathon, Ontario, which is in the early development stage. The Marathon PGM deposit has similar geology to the Northern Palladium project.