On Tuesday, the company delivered its interim financial results for the six months to the end of June and MMG CEO Jerry Jiao said they had made made significant progress in the construction of Dugald River, situated 60 kilometres north of Cloncurry.

“Dugald River is ahead of schedule with production of first concentrate now expected in late 2017, which is well-timed to meet a tightening zinc market,” Mr Jiao said.

“With annual production of approximately 170,000 tonnes of zinc in zinc concentrate and an increasingly strong price outlook for zinc, Dugald River is well timed and positioned to be within the world’s top 10 zinc mines when operational.”

According to the figures from the financial report the Dugald River project was 73% complete as at June 30.

The company said that as the project progressed through construction and toward commissioning, contracting activity remained high with a focus on construction completion and operational readiness.

“New and revised agreements of significance include TSF (Tailing Storage Facility) /civil earthworks; village expansion; concentrate plant construction; utilities supply and maintenance; OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) spare parts supply and services; reagents and commodities first-fill and ongoing supply; multiple infrastructure and ancillary equipment contracts including site communication, refuge chambers, laboratory equipment and ancillary fleet, drilling services, raiseboring and paste plant reticulation installation services,” they said.

The company spent US$137 million in the last six months on the Dugald River development and expects to spend around US$330 million on the project this calendar year.

Surging demand and the high world zinc prices mean the company has not had to repeat the US$573.6 million, pre-tax impairment of the project in 2015.

 The mine will operate over an estimated 25 years.