PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Century zinc mine, in Queensland, has produced its first zinc concentrate, owner New Century Resources reported.
The company on Monday said that the start of tailings slurry flotation at Century presented an important milestone, demonstrating the initial proof of concept for the large-scale flotation of ore from the Century tailings deposit through the existing processing facility on site.
Ramp-up activities at Century are now focused on progressively optimising concentrate product quality through the zinc cleaner circuit, followed by zinc and silver recoveries and plant throughput.
Hydraulic mining operations started earlier in August, with New Century saying excellent progress has been made, with activities to date demonstrating the tailings deposit was amenable to raid ramp-up to target slurry density.
Century has an estimated production capacity of 264 000 t/y zinc and three-million ounces a year of silver over an initial mine life of just over six years.