PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian base- and precious metals developer Hillgrove Resources was aiming to complete construction at its flagship Kanmantoo copper/gold project, in South Australia, early next year, it reported on Friday.

The mine would be a two-million ton a year open-cut operation producing about 17 000 t/y of copper in concentrate and 8 000 oz/y of gold.

Hillgrove would start wet and dry commissioning once construction is completed at the end of the first quarter of 2011.

The company reported that drill rigs would be on site within the next month to continue the orebody definition, resource definition and exploration activities.

Kanmantoo currently hosts a mineral resource of 32,2-million tons grading 0,9% copper and 0,20 g/t gold, containing 292 200 t of copper, 191 100 oz of gold and more than 3,3-million ounces of silver.

The engineering designs for the Mount Barker treated water pipeline, the tailings storage facility, the site ore processing facility and required civil engineering activities were being finalised.

Hillgrove noted that initial civil works on site were planned to start during April and initial shipments of equipment would start to arrive during May.

Senior project roles would start to be placed in the next quarter, with the main phase of the recruitment programme expected to ramp up in the second half of 2010.

The flagship Kanmantoo project, located less than 60 km from Adelaide in South Australia near Mount Barker.

Meanwhile, Hillgrove has appointed Cam Schubert as executive GM of the project. Schubert was previously appointed as the site senior executive and GM for diversified miner Xstrata’s Ernst Henry operation, in North Queensland, and for BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam expansion project.

Hillgrove was currently focused on developing its South Austraian and Queensland base and precious metals projects, while targeting the discovery of gold and copper/gold deposits in Indonesia.

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