Cloncurry, 30 August 2012
Ore production has commenced at Xstrata Copper’s AUD300
million Mount Margaret Mining operation in north-west Queensland, following the
official start of mining activities last month, with ore now being trucked to
Ernest Henry Mining for processing.
Xstrata Copper purchased the Mount Margaret mining tenements
last year for AUD175 million and will invest a further AUD124 million in the
operation over the next five years.
The mine will add around 30,000 tonnes of annual copper
production to Ernest Henry Mining over this period and strengthen the economics
of Ernest Henry by taking immediate advantage of the available installed
capacity of the concentrator and associated infrastructure.
Ernest Henry Mining General Manager Myles Johnston said Mount
Margaret was progressing on target with personnel and machinery gradually
ramping up in line with the ore production schedule.
“Approximately four million tonnes of material has been mined
since we started the pre-strip in July,” Mr Johnston said.
“Ore is now being trucked to our Ernest Henry operation where
it will be temporarily stockpiled prior to processing, which will commence in
late September.
“Mount Margaret ore has a different composition to ore from
Ernest Henry and will be treated separately through the concentrator using a
different reagent scheme and settings to achieve maximum grades and
recoveries.
“Our Mount Margaret workforce has now grown to 220 people and
we expect to reach our full contingent of 300 employees in the first quarter of
2013.
“Our current open pit mining fleet includes two excavators and
eight haul trucks, with another three excavators arriving in September and
additional trucks and equipment coming online from 2013 in line with our
production schedule.
“Next month, we also expect to complete construction of the
administration building, amenities and maintenance workshop, with additional
supporting infrastructure completed by the end of this year.”
The tenements,
comprising E1 and Monakoff, are located 8 kilometres east and 21 kilometres
south respectively of Ernest Henry Mining near Cloncurry and are being developed
through a series of small open pit mines.
In total, the
Mount Margaret operation will add an additional 20 million tonnes of ore to
Ernest Henry’s existing production profile throughout its five year life,
producing around 140,000 tonnes of copper, 83,000 ounces of gold and 560,000
tonnes of magnetite in concentrate over that time.
Xstrata plans to
continue exploration at Mount Margaret to identify any additional ore resources
for future development.
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