PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A scoping study into the Lady Colleen copper project, in Queensland, has found that the project could produce 44 000 t of copper over a five-year period, at a C1 cost of around $2.78/lb.
The scoping study is based on the construction of an opencut mine at Lady Colleen, with copper production to be sourced from both heap leach and flotation processing methods.
ASX-listed Austral Resources on Wednesday revealed that the study had estimated a pre-tax internal rate of return of 38% over and a pre-tax net present value of A$60-million, and a pay-back period of 2.6 years.
Austral MD and CEO Dan Jauncey said the company was thrilled with the results of the initial scoping study, which had exceeded expectations.
“The overall performance of the project opportunity is a direct consequence of our team’s unwavering efforts to prove up the economic viability of the current proven copper resource at Lady Colleen. With the base case for building the mine now delivered, we are quickly moving to add to this exciting development. Our team is now progressing additional exploration activities that are expected to further upgrade the mine resource and flowing from this, viability metrics.
“Ahead of any such upgrades, the initial study’s findings have already increased the chance of the robust and economically viable copper sulphide deposit at Lady Colleen being developed. A mine there will provide a material boost to Austral’s revenue base. It would further cement our position as both a copper producer and an explorer with a still highly prospective project book.”
The company also said on Wednesday that it had identified clear opportunities for improvement in cost economics and intended to evaluate these through a prefeasibility study.