The company re-opened the mine in November and on Wednesday Capricorn Copper chairman Owen Hegarty said the shipment of 11,800 wet metric tonnes of high quality copper concentrate met another significant milestone for the company.

“We are very pleased to see our first sale of copper concentrate shipped through the Port of Townsville,” Mr Hegarty said.

“The quality of the facilities at the Port ensure we can efficiently deliver our product to customers anywhere in the world, and we are well on our way to delivering the next shipment towards the end of March.”  

Capricorn Copper Managing Director Carl Hallion said the development of a logistics chain for concentrate with South 32 Cannington, near McKinlay, gave Capricorn Copper access to world class facilities and capabilities, and was an example of Capricorn Copper’s strong focus of supporting the North West Queensland region.

“Capricorn Copper’s track record of delivering results since acquiring the project and its potential for growth made it one of Australia’s newest and most exciting copper producers,” Mr Hallion said.

Capricorn Copper expects to produce around 30,000 tonnes of copper annually in concentrate  which will generate $2.75 billion of export value over an initial mine life of ten years at current copper prices.

The mine 125km north of Mount Isa, is a high grade resource, containing over 900,000 tonnes of copper metal with strong exploration results expected to support an extension of the mine life beyond the initial ten years.

The former Mount Gordon mine was mothballed in 2013 following declining copper prices and Capricorn Copper’s Board approved the capital program to commence the refurbishment and restart project in November 2016, following a feasibility study, which outlined the optimal strategy to recommence operations on a sustainable basis.

The refurbished plant was commissioned in late 2017, with ramp up to steady state of annual copper production of 30,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate on track for early 2018.