PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Oz Minerals has launched a scoping study at its Carrapateena project, in South Australia, after the identification of a 61-million-tonne high-grade resource, grading 2.9 g/t copper equivalent.

Oz Minerals in February suspended its hunt for a joint venture partner for the Carrapateena project, instead undertaking value-add initiatives at the project area.

As part if this strategy, Oz in April committed to evaluating three development options for the Carrapateena project – a standalone block cave project, a Gawler Craton strategy linking Carrapateena to the Prominent Hill mine through a 250 km rail line, and a high-grade option.

It was while investigating the high-grade option that existing data identified the high-grade resource, Oz said on Tuesday.

The scoping study was aimed at defining a potential mining and processing project of up to three-million tonnes a year, with a capital spend of less than A$1-billion.

Included in this study would be an assessment of early mine access options.

“Carrapateena is a world-class deposit and the high-grade option has the potential to kick-start the development of this very large resource. Importantly, if the scoping study is successful, it could see greater shareholder returns generated sooner, with local job creation and investment accelerated,” said Oz MD and CEO Andrew Cole.

While all three development options for Carrapateena remained actively under consideration, Cole said the higher-grade project would initially involve mining the high-grade bornite and chalcopyrite core using a selective mining method, as was already done at the Prominent Hill underground mine.

The scoping study was expected to cost some A$300 000 to complete and would fall within the A$30-million budget allocated to Carrapateena for 2015.

A 2014 prefeasibility study (PFS) at the Carrapateena project estimated that the mine could deliver 114 000 t/y of copper and 117 000 oz/y of gold for a capital investment of A$2.98-billion.

The PFS was based on a resource estimate of 292-million tonnes, grading 1.29% copper and 0.48 g/t gold.