The mine’s owners were considering further projects in the Cloncurry district including the Merlin Project, which could provide 10 per cent of the world’s rhenium.

Chinova Resources employees presented the plans of closure and the company’s future prospects to landowners in a meeting timed with Melbourne Cup day at the Osborne mine’s village, about 150 kilometres south of Cloncurry.

General manager of operations Neal Valk said the company was looking at developing a large molybdenum and rhenium deposit north of the existing Osborne mine, in the company’s existing leases.

“It’s the world’s highest grade of moly [molybdenum] known,” Mr Valk said.

The total Merlin resource is estimated to contain 6.4 Mt with a grade of 1.5 per cent moly and 26 parts-per-million.

Mr Valk said the silvery transition metal rhenium produced at the Merlin Project would account for 10 per cent of the world’s market.

Existing infrastructure built for Osborne Mine, including the gas power station and airport, could be used

The Osborne village will need to be moved 50 kilometres north and a new crusher and process plant will have to be built, Mr Valk said.

Mr Valk said molybdenum concentrate would be bagged and would then travel by road to Townsville.

It would be exported to Guangxi province in southern China where it is concentrated further in a treatment plant.

The ore would either be sold to China or the world market, he said.

But there would be a gap between the closure of Osborne and the opening of the Merlin Project, which seemed likely to affect employment.

Mr Valk said the highest numbers on site at Osborne totalled 400.  

“There is no automatic runover from Osborne to Merlin, there will be a gap,” Mr Valk said.   

But he was unsure “at this stage” how big the gap would be. 

Factors affecting the gap included the building of a processing plant, which might not be completed until June 2016.

Mr Valk said he would travel to China in two weeks to meet with company owners Shanxi Donghui Coal Coking & Chemicals Group for more details on the project.

An updated feasibility study on the Merlin Project will be released in November.