Sunrise Resources' (SRES) second most important project, the Derryginagh barite project in Ireland, has been dealt a serious blow as a scoping study revealed it to be uneconomic at current prices. Work by independent consultants concluded that "a significant increase in the tonnage of defined mineralisation is required to demonstrate financial viability" despite already having delineated enough resources for a six-year mine life.
That's primarily because metallurgical testwork showed the processing method is more complex than originally anticipated, vastly increasing start-up costs and moving it away from the original low-capital-cost concept.
Executive chairman Patrick Cheetham conceded "we have some way to go before we have a project that will provide a satisfactory return on capital", but noted further drilling and metallurgical testing might do the trick.
