Bateman Engineering Pty Ltd.
PolyMet Mining Corp. is an investor-owned junior mining company. Their principal asset and singular focus is the NorthMet deposit in northeastern Minnesota It is one of the world’s largest undeveloped low-grade base metals and PGE resources.
PolyMet Mining Corp. (TSX-POM; OTCBB: POM.GF) announced today that it has finalized a contract with Bateman Engineering Pty Ltd. of Australia to serve as PolyMet’s principal design and process consultant for its fast-track NorthMet Project in Northeastern Minnesota. Bateman’s Brisbane, Australia, office will be the focal point for Bateman’s process design activities in connection with the NorthMet Project.
The NorthMet Project is an advanced stage development to commercialize PolyMet’s large, low-grade, base and precious metals NorthMet deposit in northeastern Minnesota that contains valuable quantities of copper, nickel, cobalt, palladium, platinum and gold.
William Murray, president and chief executive, stated that Bateman Engineering is a world-class firm that brings accomplished
professionals to our Project Development Team in Minnesota, in process plant design. It also lends its expertise in the operation of high temperature autoclaves, which is the basis of our patented final stage processing technology.
Bateman Engineering Pty Ltd. is part of the privately owned Bateman BV group of companies, which operate on all five continents. Its team comprises over 1,000 permanent staff around the world. Bateman specializes in process technologies and project management for the metals and minerals sector as well in oil and gas sector.
Bateman also has a successful track record of facilitating all types of project financing. Bateman was preferred because of its considerable
experience in feasibility studies, its expertise in design and construction of mineral processing plants for base metals and platinum group metals and, in particular, for its expertise in the engineering, design, and construction of the pressure leach technology that is at the core of the proposed process route for this project.
PolyMet’s Project Development Team is also advancing environmental permitting work as part of its final feasibility study on the NorthMet Project. The company’s schedule calls for commercial metals production in 2007 using existing front-end processing facilities at nearby Cliffs-Erie, formerly LTV Steel Mining.