Name of the Project
Century zinc mine project.

Location
The Century zinc mine is located in North West Queensland, Australia.

Client
New Century Resources.

Project Description
The project aims to restart operations at the Century zinc mine, which has proven ore reserves of 77.3-million tonnes at 3.1% zinc equivalent for the mine’s tailings deposit.

The results of the restart feasibility study have concluded that the Century mine will again be one of the top ten zinc operations in the world, with steady-state production forecast at 507 000 t/y of zinc concentrate at 52% zinc over an initial 6.3-year mine life from only the Century tailings deposit.

The deposit will be mined using hydraulic mining methods. At a capacity of 15-million tonnes a year, this process will involve the use of five track-mounted monitor units, four actively working individual faces throughout the deposit and one on standby.

Minor modifications will be made to the existing Century mine processing plant to enable it to process reclaimed tailings slurry at a design throughput of 15-million tonnes a year. This includes the installation of an additional seven 100 m3 float cells and four regrind mills during the first 15 months of operations.

Operation of the mine and plant will take place in stages for the systematic expansion of hydraulic mining operations.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$1.31-million and an internal rate of return of 270%.

Value
Start-up capital costs are estimated at $50-million.

Once in production, further ramp-up capital of A$63-million will be invested over a 15-month period (for a total capital requirement of A$113-million) to bring the operation into full production at 15-million tonnes a year. Ramp-up capital is proposed to be funded from operational cash flow.

Duration
First production is expected in the third quarter of 2018.

Latest Developments
Nyrstar plans to suspend arbitration proceedings against New Century Resources after the parties agreed to a binding term sheet for five-and-a-half years of zinc concentrate offtake.

New Century and Nyrstar have said in a joint statement that the term sheet covers 600 000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of zinc concentrate from the Century zinc mine.

The agreement includes a variable tonnage allocation of 250 000 dmt of zinc concentrate for the first 3.5 years, increasing to 350 000 dmt for the final two years of the offtake agreement. This represents about 15% and 35%, respectively of scheduled production at New Century.

Earlier this month, Nyrstar submitted arbitration proceedings over legacy contracts to buy zinc concentrate from the Century mine. At the time, New Century said that it understood that Nyrstar had entered into agreements to purchase zinc concentrate from the Century mine in 2007, but that these agreements had been terminated “some time ago and prior to the company’s acquisition of the mine”.

Earlier this month, New Century Resources selected Australia-based National Pump and Energy (NPE) and South Africa-based Paragon Tailings as the preferred contractors for hydraulic mining service works for the Century tailings deposit.

NPE and Paragon have proposed a two-duty, two standby cannon arrangement to achieve the initial planned eight-million-tonne-a-year operation at Century, prior to the addition of two duty cannons to achieve ramp-up to the scheduled 15-million tons a year.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
New Century Resources, tel +61 8 6142 0989 or email info@newcenturyresources.com.