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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior minerals developer Rex Minerals on Friday told shareholders that it would extend the feasibility study of its Hillside copper project, in South Australia, to pursue a lower capital cost for the project.
A recently updated mine plan showed that the flagship copper project would deliver over 75 000 t/y of copper, 60 000 oz/y of gold and over 1.2-million tonnes a year of iron-ore concentrate during the first ten years.
ASX-listed Rex said the feasibility study, which was based on a 15-million-tonne-a-year base case operation had largely been completed; however, the study identified a number of other options, including the potential for a smaller-scale start-up operation, which would now be investigated.
The scope of the extended feasibility study would include an emphasis on lower up-front capital costs, an initial smaller footprint for the project pit, initial pit designs that emphasised dilution control resulting in higher grades, and alternative design scenarios covering mining methods, haulage, processing and shipping.
Rex noted that a number of cost saving measures would also be implemented across the company to ensure that Rex had sufficient cash reserves to support the extended feasibility study, new development plan and the subsequent financing alternatives.
Meanwhile, MD Mark Parry on Friday announced his resignation from Rex, effective immediately.
Executive chairperson David Carland would take over Parry’s role in the interim, saying that given the delay to the feasibility study to concentrate attention on a smaller-scale start-up, the MD role would take a new focus.
The South Australian government recently approved the mining lease for the Hillside project, formally offering the company the mineral tenements covering the Hillside project.