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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (30847)	1/5/2009 7:13:42 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 194034

Xstrata suspends copper/gold operation as heavy rain batters Queensland Freak weather conditions which have seen Mt Isa cut off by road after almost as much rain in the first few days of 2009 as in the whole of 2008 has led to Xstrata being forced to suspend open pit mining at its Ernest Henry operation. Posted: Monday , 05 Jan 2009 SYDNEY (Reuters) - mineweb.com Heavy rain has halted open pit mining operations at Xstrata Plc's (XTA.L) Ernest Henry copper and gold mine in Australia's north, an Xstrata Copper spokeswoman said on Monday. "Normal pit operations are expected to re-commence later this week," the spokeswoman said. She said while rain had delayed mining for the past three days it had not affected Ernest Henry's concentrator throughput or concentrate operations. The mine has annual production capacity of 115,000 tonnes of copper-in-concentrate and 120,000 ounces of gold-in-concentrate. Close to 270 millimetres of rain has fallen at the project site since the start of the year. The spokeswoman said Xstrata's Mount Isa copper/lead/zinc underground mining operations, 120 kms west of Ernest Henry, had been little impacted by rain sweeping through the region. But rail operator Queensland Rail said 18 freight services from the outback mining centre to the port city of Townsville had been disrupted by the closure of the Mount Isa railway line from Friday to Monday. "Freight services are returning to normal," said a rail spokesman. Mount Isa remains cut off by road after experiencing almost as much rain in five days as it did throughout 2008. During the past five days 162.2 millimetres of rain has fallen in the town, just short of the 173.8 millimetres that fell over the entire 2008, one of the driest years on record. The Bureau of Meteorology issued flood warnings on Monday for several rivers in Queensland's north-western region and forecast further moderate to heavy rain.