Selwyn Chihong Mining Ltd. plans to spend $54 million on its Selwyn Project next year, the company announced Monday.

Among the expenditures is the installation of five new bridges required to upgrade an old road along the Yukon-N.W.T. border from the lead-zinc property at Howard's Pass to the Nahanni Range Road.

The company also announced it is planning a comprehensive drill program to firm up its evaluation of mineral resources.

Selwyn Chihong vice-president Maurice Albert said Tuesday the company is moving forward with the development of a bankable feasibility study, with the intent of answering three priority questions by the end of the year:

• how to provide power to the mine site;

• how to transport the concentrate to a salt water port; and

• which seaport to use and what additional port facilities would be required.

Essentially, said Albert, it comes down to the port in either Skagway, Haines or Stewart, B.C.

None of the three have the capacity at this time to handle the amount of concentrate Selwyn Chihong is planning on moving, he said.

Albert said it's the goal, however, to identify the transportation route and have the port destination affirmed by the governing port authority by the end of the year.

Options to provide power to the mine site include diesel generation and natural gas generation but are not limited to just those two, he said.

The previous sole owner of the property had identified a number of potential sites for hydro generation.

Selwyn Chihong, Albert added, is meeting this week with Yukon Energy and representatives of the Kaska Nation to discuss options for providing power to the mine site.

Albert said the company wants to have the bankable feasibility study completed by the end of 2015, with a goal of beginning construction in mid-2017.

In full operation, the company estimates it will employ 650 to 700 workers.

It's estimated it will cost $1.8 billion to bring the mine into production.

Selwyn Resources, the previous sole owner, has been holding up the Howard's Pass property as a world-class deposit for several years.

Selwyn sold 50 per cent of the project to a large Chinese company in 2010 for $100 million, money which was meant to advance the work.

Selwyn was forced to give up its 50 per cent ownership last spring after it was unable to meet the financial commitments set out in the 2010 partnership agreement.

Albert said the bridge work has already been awarded, and the road construction work is expected to be tendered in late January or early February.

The company is currently preparing the tender package for the drill program, which it wants to get started with in March, he said.

Albert said initially Selwyn Resources was proposing to begin production with an underground mine project.

The focus now, however, is on a much larger open pit operation with a maximum daily production of 25,000 tonnes.

Daily production at the Minto Mine, by comparison, is approximately 4,500 tonnes per day.