Finding the Minimum Viable Scale
One of the toughest questions in developing a new processing plant often is scale.
How big should the first plant be?
Too often, the industry defaults to building quickly and often at scale desperate to demonstrate commercial viability to increase valuation and attract capital
But in reality:
Early commitment to scale and at larger scale than prudent locks projects into high-risk, high-cost pathways.
These pathways have a double edge: higher failure risk and often economically beyond the capacity of the project to recover.
Additionally, Plants designed too large, too early, often fail to deliver the assumed performance.
Capital intensity skyrockets before technical risks have been resolved.
At Scimita, we take a different approach.
Through our Ore Reserve Optimisation Program, we identify the Minimum Viable Scale (MVS)—the lowest-capital configuration that can still deliver commercial viability.
This delivers three powerful benefits:
Capital Efficiency – reduce upfront spend and preserve optionality.
De-risking – validate the process at a scale that’s big enough to be credible, but small enough to control risk.
Flexibility – modularity enables expansion in line with demand, rather than locking into overbuilt infrastructure.
Our structured 8-stage process, underpinned by Scimita’s AI flowsheeting and economic modelling tools, ensures that MVS is not a guess—it is an engineered decision.
By right-sizing the first plant, projects can:
Cut years from the timeline to first revenue.
Avoid stranded capital.
Build investor confidence by demonstrating a realistic, scalable pathway.
Because in mining today, success is not about building the biggest plant—it’s about building the right-sized plant that proves the pathway, capital efficiently.
If you’d like to explore how Scimita structures this journey, reach out—we’d be happy to share more.