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HIGHFIELD RESOURCES 46 E&MJ; • JUNE 2016 www.e-mj.com In an area less than 50 km from Pam- plona, Highfeld Resources is planning to open the Muga mine, which will extract potash from sylvinite beds in an 80- km 2 deposit. The company believes the deposit starting at depths to surface of less than 200 m is ideal for a relatively low-cost room-and-pillar mine. The rural setting offers plenty of room to construct a mineral processing plant. The product has access to national road networks, rail and various ports along the Atlantic Coast making it relatively easy to ship product to European, East Coast U.S., West Coast African and Brazilian customers. If all goes as planned, the Muga mine could break ground as soon as the third quarter of 2016, reaching commercial production in 2018. Widely known for the Festival of St. Fermin and the running of the bulls, Pamplona has a strong Basque infuence and a rich mining history. The Basque term "muga" means "border" or "bound- ary." The Muga project sits alongside one of the minor Camino de Santiago (St. James' path) routes known as the Ara- gonese Way (this route joins the French Way that goes through Pamplona at the Navarran town of Puente la Reine) on the border of the Spanish states of Aragon and Navarre. After collecting a wealth of informa- tion about the deposit and optimizing a defnitive feasibility study (DFS), High- feld is in the process of securing per- mits and the necessary fnancing to begin construction. The four major European banks backing the company's Spanish development projects recently commis- sioned an independent report on the pot- ash market. The report, which included a specifc focus on the Muga project, confrmed that, based on average potash prices for 2015, Highfeld would have high margins and likely be the lowest cost potash producer on a delivered basis into its target markets (Europe, Brazil and the U.S). The costs included all cash costs required to get 1 ton of muriate of potash (MoP) product to the point of sale in the relevant market. "We continue to believe we have the most compelling potash project globally, and this is the frst of our portfolio of fve projects that all appear to exhibit simi- lar characteristics," said Anthony Hall, managing director, Highfeld Resources. In addition to the Muga project, the other four potash projects are Vipasca, Pintano, Izaga and Sierra del Perdón, all of which are located in the Ebro potash producing basin in northern Spain, covering a pro- ject area of more than 550 km 2 . The Sierra del Perdón project includes two former potash mines that were known as Potasas de Navarra and Potasas de Subiza. Sierra del Perdón produced pot- ash for about $100 per metric ton (mt) at a time when potash was selling for $100/ mt. The company needed a signifcant upgrade in infrastructure to open new sections of the mine, which resulted in the Navarran government deciding it no longer wanted to produce potash and closed the mines in the late 1990s. Highfeld has a promising project with some clear advantages over traditional potash operations. Already, the company has signed its frst memorandums of un - derstanding for potash offtake with three large fertilizer companies, active in the Spanish and French markets for 320,000 mt/y of K60 MoP. They expect to receive a positive environmental declaration soon and then construction can begin on the Muga mine. The Muga Mining Plan Muga's life-of-mine plan has two phases. "The frst phase, which is Muga 1, will take the mine from the construction phase to half of its commercial produc- tion capacity," said Michael X. Schlump- berger, executive general manager-opera- tions for the Muga potash mine. "During phase 2, underground production would ramp up to full capacity." While RoM ore tonnages will vary, the mine plan has been designed to ensure the processing Highfeld Resources Prepares to Open the Muga Mine Seeing regional market advantages, a junior miner hopes to reopen a Spanish potash district By Steve Fiscor, Editor-in-Chief Figure 1—Location of Highfeld's Muga, Vipasca, Pintano, Izaga and Sierra del Perdón Projects in northern Spain.