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REGIONAL NEWS - U.S. & CANADA 10 E&MJ; • JULY 2017 www.e-mj.com JobsOhio President and Chief Invest- ment Officer John Minor said the facility will create 130 permanent jobs and more than 1,200 construction jobs over the next two years. The estimated investment in the en- tire project is approximately $700 mil- lion, and Cliffs is currently in discussions with several passive financial partners. Cliffs anticipates breaking ground for the construction of the HBI production plant in early 2018, with the production of commercial tonnage of HBI beginning in mid-2020. Cliffs considers the brownfield site at the Port of Toledo a premier lo- cation for development due to its relative proximity to several future customers, as well as its logistics advantages, including affordable gas availability and access by multiple rail carriers. Capstone Mining Agrees to Sell Kutcho Project Capstone Mining Corp. has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement to sell its Kutcho development project to Desert Star Resources Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement, Capstone will receive C$28.8 million in cash, common shares of Desert Star representing 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares upon completion of the transaction, and will have the right to nominate one rep- resentative to the Desert Star board of di - rectors under certain circumstances. "The divestiture of Kutcho is con- sistent with our strategy to focus on our core assets," said Darren Pylot, presi- dent and CEO of Capstone. "This agree- ment allows us to retain exposure to the Kutcho project, while strengthening our balance sheet. We look forward to seeing the Kutcho project advance under Desert Star's ownership." The transaction is subject to financ- ing and other customary closing condi- tions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017. Capstone intends to use net proceeds from the sale primarily to reduce outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility. Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company with three producing mines: the Pinto Valley copper mine in Arizona, the Cozamin polymetal- lic mine in Zacatecas state, Mexico, and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. NAP Extends Mine Life at Lac des Iles North American Palladium (NAP) has an- nounced the results of a feasibility study that includes a new life-of-mine plan for its Lac des Iles mine in northwestern Ontario. Highlights of the study include mining a total of 37.7 million mt from surface and underground sources over a 9.5-year mine life at an average grade of 2.21 g/mt palladium and containing 2.68 million oz of palladium. Life-of-mine mill throughput will aver- age about 12,250 mt/d, and production of payable palladium will average about 214,400 oz/y. At full production, palladium production will total about 237,000 oz/y. In 2016, NAP produced 149,535 pay- able oz of palladium, down from 166,785 oz in 2015. Total life-of-mine capital expendi- tures for the expan- sion are estimated at C$303 million, and all-in sustaining costs are estimated at US$527/oz of palladium sold. Mine production will include approx- imately 20.4 million mt of underground mining down to the 1305-m level, primar- ily from a new sublevel shrinkage mining method, and approximately 17.3 million mt of surface material, primarily from a pushback of the currently dormant Roby open pit. The underground mine plan is anchored by long-term production from the Lac des Iles Lower Offset Zone, which is expected to produce a life-of-mine av- erage of 4,000 mt/d. A majority of the underground produc- tion will be hoisted to the surface. The bal- ance will be trucked to surface using the existing Roby underground mine ramp. The new Lac des Iles life-of-mine plan includes resumption of surface mining operations, commencing in 2018 with initial ore production for the Sheriff pit and pre-stripping on the larger Roby pit pushback. The Sheriff pit plan calls for extraction of 500,000 mt of ore at an average grade of 1.9 g/mt palladium and a strip ratio of 3.86:1. The plan for the Roby pit pushback calls for ex- traction of 11.7 million mt at an aver- age grade of 1.29 g/mt palladium and a strip ratio of 1.98:1. The Roby pit pushback will be in con - tinuous production for nine years, begin- ning in 2018 at an average rate of 3,700 mt/d and reaching peak ore production of about 5,000 mt/d in 2022. Surface pro- duction will be augmented by NAP's low- grade surface stockpile until 2023. The Lac de Iles study calls for mining a total of 37.7 million mt from surface and underground sources over a 9.5-year mine life.