An industry forum in Cloncurry heard how a Canadian company wants to start up another copper mine in the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Copper Mountain Mining Corporation's head of Australian operations Roland Bartsch told a state department industry breakfast on Monday that while their flagship project was in British Columbia they were progressing the Little Eva project north of Cloncurry, anticipated to have a 15 year mine life.
If approved Little Eva would become another major mine in the region, just as the Saint Elmo vanadium is approved, with an anticipated workforce of 460 people in construction and 280 people in steady state operations.
Already it has appointed Ausenco as engineering, procurement and construction management contractor with limited notice to proceed pending construction decision.
Mr Bartsch said Little Eva was planned to be a conventional open pit and conventional flow sheet with a crush, grind, gravity separation and flotation and their 2020 bankable feasibility study showed they could increase production at a lower cost.
RELATED NEWS: Rocklands set to reopen next month
Little Eva will produce 162,000 tonnes a year of high grade copper concentrate which will be trucked to Mount Isa with a five
He said project financing was due to complete by quarter 4 in 2021 followed by a construction decision by year end and it was a 'unique growth opportunity".
Little Eva, situated north of Dugald River zinc mine, has had a long history with multiple deposits found there in 1990 and then passing hands through several exploration companies including Altona and feasibility studies before Copper Mountain bought out Altona in 2017 in a $93m deal.
The company then conducted a feasibility study of its own which found the potential for a longer mine life and improved economic forecasts.as the world copper price rose.
Mr Bartsch said Copper Mountain was expecting to get all required permits and regulatory approvals for Eva development by the start of December.
He said they would source power via an extension of the Dugald River mine powerline which would be connected to regional infrastructure or the national grid via CopperString if it gets up.
Copper Mountain was also looking at exploration potential on their North West Queensland lease.
Mr Bartsch said their mineral tenure was in the world class Mount Isa Inlier region and included over 140 regional targets at various stages of maturity including high potential gold targets.
"The core of our package surrounds the strongly mineralised Rose Bee Fault Corridor," he said.
He said their exploration program was focused on Cameron Copper and high-grade copper-gold targets with 6000m of reverse circulation drilling and 1200m of diamond drilling.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
Bookmark https://www.northweststar.com.au/
Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Google News