Aurelia moving ahead with Great Cobar
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) into the Great Cobar base metal and gold deposit, in New South Wales, has estimated that the project could produce 47 000 t of copper and 61 000 oz of gold over an initial five-year mine life.
ASX-listed Aurelia Metals on Thursday reported that the PFS estimated a pre-production capital expenditure of A$35-million to bring the project into production, with life-of-mine capital expenditure estimated at A$50-million.
Operating costs have been estimated at A$175/t of ore processed at Aurelia’s Peak mine, 8 km away.
“The PFS findings justify an economically viable and relatively low-risk brownfield mine development that will provide baseload feed to the Peak processing plant for at least five years,” said Aurelia MD and CEO Dan Clifford.
“It will also enable establishment of underground drill platforms to further unlock the upside potential of the copper-rich Great Cobar deposit.
“Development of Great Cobar supports Aurelia’s ‘copper ready’ strategy and offers substantial potential value uplift from further mineral resource conversion and growth, mine life extension, processing of lead/zinc mineralisation, higher metal prices and discovery of additional potentially economic mineralisation in proximity to the Great Cobar deposit.
“Following completion of the PFS, the Peak mine’s ore reserve estimate has increased by 19% to 3.2-million tonnes, after allowing for mining depletion to the end of December, and inclusion of the Great Cobar deposit. This demonstrates the ongoing strong reserve growth that can be achieved from our Cobar basin assets.”
The Great Cobar project will proceed directly to implementation, with first stope production expected 18 months after access decline started. Decline works are targeted for July this year, with first ore production targeted for late 2023.
Regulatory approvals for production at Great Cobar are expected in late 2022.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation