JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australia’s Altona Mining, which is being bought out by Canada’s Copper Mountain, reported on Thursday that it had executed an offtake agreement with Glencore for the sale of copper/gold concentrates to be produced at the Cloncurry project, in north-west Queensland.
Glencore, operates the Mt Isa copper smelter 180 km away and will take all the mine’s production for a five-year term, with delivery set at the project’s mine gate.
Altona did not reveal the commercial terms, but noted that they were competitive.
MD Alistair Cowden said the execution of an offtake agreement for Altona was a milestone, which would allow Altona and Copper Mountain to fast-track the Cloncurry project.
Cloncurry is envisaged as a seven-million-tonne-a-year openpit copper/gold mine and concentrator, producing 39 000 t of copper and 17 200 oz of gold for a minimum of 14 years.
The project has a mineral resource containing 1.67-million tonnes of copper and 0.43-million ounces of gold.
Altona announced on November 20 that Copper Mountain would buy it out in a A$93-million deal. Their combination will result in a mid-sized copper company with a production profile of about 73 000 t/y of copper.
Copper Mountain’s principal asset is a 75%-owned large openpit in southern British Columbia.