PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Hong Kong-listed MMG on Thursday reported that it was considering lower yearly throughput, over a longer mine life, for its Dugald River zinc/lead/silver project, in Queensland.

The miner said that an updated development plan for the Dugald River mine was under consideration, following the 2014 trial stoping programme, as well as the value engineering and project studies.

MMG said that the company would continue to review all available options with the objective of developing the project in a way that would maximise long-term shareholder value.

A decision on the Dugald River project was expected by the third quarter.

Dugald River had a mineral resource of about 53-million tons, at 12.5% zinc, 1.9% lead and 36 g/t silver. Initial plans estimated that the mine would process an average of two-million tons a year of ore initially, to produce between 200 000 t and 220 000 t of zinc concentrate, between 27 000 t and 30 000 t of lead in concentrate and about 900 000 oz/y of silver.

Meanwhile, MMG was also readying to cease production at its Century mine, in Queensland, before the end of the year.

The mine produced 104 852 t of zinc concentrate during the first quarter ended March, which was 7% lower than the previous corresponding period, and 28% lower than the previous quarter, owing to lower feed grades as the openpit mining operation approached completion.

MMG GM for Queensland, Mark Adams, said on Thursday that the completion of the Century openpit production would mark the end of an era for the mine and the region.

“Century has been a big part of the Gulf region and the Australian mining community for almost two decades. I know the completion of mining at Australia’s largest zinc mine will mark the end of an era for many.”

Adams also said that a batch of ore stockpiled during the 2014 trial stoping programme at MMG’s Dugald River development project would be processed at Century following the completion of Century openpit production.

“Approximately 450 000 t of ore with an average grade of 13.3% zinc was produced during our trial stoping programme at Dugald River last year.

“While we do not intend to truck ore between the two sites over the long term, processing this single batch of ore at Century provides us with a further opportunity to understand how Dugald River ore performs during processing.”

It would take between four and six weeks to process the batch of Dugald River ore on the Century processing circuit.

MMG expects to produce between 320 000 t and 370 000 t of zinc and between 75 000 t and 85 000 t of lead at Century in 2015. The yearly guidance excludes the processing of Dugald River ore using Century’s infrastructure.