PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior bauxite developer Metallica Minerals has appointed contractor LCR Group to undertake all mining and haulage operations at the Urquhart bauxite project, in far north Queensland.
LCR will be responsible for the supply of all mining equipment and personnel, and will perform all short-term planning and management to deliver bauxite from the project to Hey Point, where it will be shipped through existing infrastructure.
Mining will start four to six weeks after mobilisation is completed, with Metallica on Monday saying that mobilisation will start after the satisfaction of a number of conditions precedent, including the grant of a mining lease.
Metallica told shareholder that the contracting model would deliver a low capital project, with a compressed development schedule, with LCR having agreed to capitalise their mobilisation, as well as the design and construction of the haul road linking the project to Hey Point.
The costs will be paid back through monthly installments across a two-and-a-half-year period.
The Urquhart project is expected to produce between 1.5-million and 2-million tonnes a year of direct shipping bauxite, with the project poised to deliver its first product in the third quarter of this year.