The Woodlawn production restart study has returned “exceptional metrics” for the copper and zinc mine, located about 250 km from Sydney.

Energy transition metals company Develop Global has confirmed a pretax net present value jump of 37% to A$658-million and cashflow soaring to A$1-billion.

These metrics reflect the substantial exploration success at the mine, which has seen the ore reserve increase by 80% to six-million tonnes at 2.8% copper-equivalent and the mineral resources increase by 55% to 11.3-million tonnes at 3.8% copper-equivalent.

The study is based on a 0.85-million-tonne-a-year underground mine. The mine plan indicates Woodlawn will produce an average 12 000 t/y of copper and 36 000 t/y of zinc metal in payable streams, and life-of-mine payable metal of 80 000 t copper and 218 000 t zinc.

“The restart plan confirms that Woodlawn is a great mine by any measure. The valuation, the inventory, the cashflow and the returns are all extremely strong. At the same time, the startup costs, the funding requirements and the risks are all very low.

“This exceptional scenario sits against a backdrop of a very bullish outlook for copper and zinc, particularly in tier one locations,” commented Develop MD Bill Beament.

In light of this, Develop is exploring several funding options. These include potentially selling a minority interest in Woodlawn to a strategic investor, traditional project finance and offtake financing.

“The sale of a minority interest would enable us to recycle some capital and may provide us with a model which we can apply to our Sulphur Springs mine at the appropriate time.

“We have already received an elevated level of interest in Woodlawn from potential financiers, strategic partners and customers and we will now test this appetite more thoroughly. Completion of this milestone, which will be our major focus this quarter, will put us in the home straight for a production restart,” said Beament.

He reported that Develop had already received an elevated level of interest in Woodlawn from potential financiers, strategic partners and customers. “We will now test this appetite more thoroughly.”