Lady Annie copper weathers the north Queensland wet season
CopperCo plans to start mining the Lady Annie deposit in Queensland, Australia, next month. A mine on the site was first considered in the mid 1970s so it has had a long gestation period.
Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Thursday , 29 Mar 2007
mineweb.net
PERTH -
Lady Annie, one of the sleeping mineral discoveries in Queensland that should have wrinkles by now, is on course to be producing copper cathode by late July.
The deposit, which was a mine development blueprint back in the mid 1970s for MIM Holdings (now Xstrata) and Triako Minerals, has progressed through the northern wet season with some delays but hardly the damaging exercises experienced by mine developers in Western Australia's Pilbara region with three recent cyclones.
Owner CopperCo Ltd said today that it now has a professional and technical team, has all key supply and service contracts "agreed and largely executed" and plans to start mining operations at the Mount Clarke deposit in April.
Managing director Brian Rear said the company's objective was to develop the resource base sufficiently to support an early upgrade of copper production capacity from 19,000 tonnes per annum to a minimum 25,000 tpa and that the company would now commit to achieving the higher output by mid calendar 2008.
"The exploration focus now shifts to evaluation of the chalcocite mineralisation below the copper oxide orebody at Lady Annie and the wider potential for nearby copper oxide potential in and around the designated orebodies that constitute the mine project," he said.
Rear said that despite the volatility in costs, and in both delivery time and cost of capital goods and services, CopperCo expects final capital cost by commissioning time to be $A86 million ($US69.62 M), up 8% on the original feasibility estimate.
There is now a 149-person permanent camp, complete with employee facilities including a gymnasium, internet café and multi channel satellite television.
Crushing, ore agglomeration and heap leaching will start early in June to have adequate soluble copper for SX-EW commissioning in mid July.
Rear said that so far the Wet season has been kind, with only one 10 day period of rain delay. The earth works contractor caught up by double shifting to the point where civil works should meet "satisfactory completion deadlines."
At a 0.3% Cu lower cut off the current Mineral Resource for Lady Annie is 11.3 million tonnes at 1.0% copper for 116,700 tonnes of contained copper. |
