Canada-based Tucano Gold Inc. announced this week in the PDAC convention in Toronto that it is launching the brand Tucano Green Iron, which will produce and sell iron ore in the Brazilian northern state of Amapá.
The company is currently reactivating a gold mine in the state, which includes a magnetite processing plant, located in the middle of the gold production system.
The plant operated in 2013 and 2014, producing an iron ore concentrate with an iron contents in the range of 66 to 67 percent, at a cost of less than $4/mt, but it was idled since then due to the low price of the ore.
The production plans include in a first stage the annual production of 500,000 mt of iron ore with 66 percent iron contents, at a cost of $5/mt.
In a second stage, the production would be increased to 1.0 million mt per year, at a cost of $10/mt, and an iron contents of 70 percent.
The company also counts on tailings of 35 million mt of iron ore with an iron contents of 10 to 16 percent, that could be processed into 5 million mt of high-grade ore.