PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An updated mine plan for the Woodlawn zinc/copper project, in New South Wales, has estimated that the project will require a capital investment of A$32-million to allow for a restart.

ASX-listed Develop Global said on Tuesday that over the seven-year mine life, the project is expected to produce 10 000 t/y of copper metal and 35 000 t/y of zinc in metal, with the project producing 60 000 t of copper and 190 000 t of zinc in payable metal.

The updated mine plan estimated revenues of A$1.8-billion and free cash flows of A$629-million, with the pre-tax net present value estimated at A$481-million and the internal rate of return at 367%.

“This mine plan shows Woodlawn is set to create significant value for Develop,” said MD Bill Beament.

“The exceptional financial results stem from two key factors. First, the extremely favourable price we paid for the asset, which included extensive near-new infrastructure, vast underground development and an existing high-grade mineral inventory.

“Second, our operational team over the past year has completed further capital activities including extensive underground development, extending primary ventilation/escapeway systems, significant metallurgical testwork and process flowsheet optimisation, which greatly de-risks a production restart.

“The 40 000m of underground diamond drilling completed since late 2022, which consistently hit extensive mineralisation, is not included in this mine plan update and hence we are extremely excited about the resource update next quarter and the next mine plan update in the March quarter 2024, both of which will include the latest results,” Beament said.

“Woodlawn now boasts extremely strong technical and financial foundations. These ensure the project can maximise its leveraged exposure to an upturn in commodity prices, especially copper and zinc, while continuing to grow the inventory, mine life and production rates,” he added.

Develop in May of last year completed the A$100-million acquisition of the Woodlawn project, and has undertaken a significant amount of underground capital development since then, which has opened up multiple production fronts, the company said. This allowed for mining optionality and blending capacity to increase recoveries when processing various types of ore.

Some A$44-million has been spent on pre-production activities, which Develop said significantly mitigated the risks associated with production ramp-up and restart. This was in addition to the near A$340-million spent by the previous owners.

Pre-production activities will continue to de-risk the project further, and Develop is planning an updated mineral resource estimate for the December quarter of this year, with a further update scheduled for the March quarter of next year, which will feed into the final mine plan on which a final investment decision (FID) will be based.

The FID is targeted for the March quarter of 2024.