Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The South Australian government has approved the mining lease for ASX-listed Rex Minerals' Hillside copper project, formally offering the company the mineral tenements covering the Hillside 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.
Rex told shareholders on Tuesday that the tenements comprised a mining lease, an extractive minerals lease, and an associated miscellaneous purpose licence that allows for mining, mineral processing and the provision of power and water corridors.
MD Mark Parry said that the company would consider the terms of the offer and the conditions, before accepting the offer.
“Hillside holds Australia’s largest openpit copper ore reserves. It has the potential to provide very tangible benefits to the local community, creating jobs during the construction phase and during its mine life and it is the catalyst for new fresh water and power supplies for the region, and new shared infrastructure at Ardrossan.”
Parry said that more broadly, there was also the potential for the state to benefit through increased royalties and taxes over the life of the project.
“We will continue to engage with and involve members of the community as the company proceeds towards the construction phase of the Hillside project. We will maintain our community dialogue and involve the community in monitoring our performance and commitment,” Parry added.
Parry has previously revealed that the company was progressing a number of important project development and funding initiatives for Hillside, to allow for construction to start, and for copper production to start by 2016.