Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining operations at the Bauxite Hills mine, in Cape York, are scheduled to start on April 19, owner Metro Mining said on Wednesday.
The company told shareholders that it has set a mining and shipment target of four-million tonnes of bauxite between April and December this year, with an initial 2.3-million tonnes committed under a long-standing offtake agreement with Xinfa.
Negotiations for additional sales are progressing for 2021 and beyond.
“The Metro team and our contracting partners are keen to get back to work and we are in the fortunate position of being able to welcome back many people who have experience working at Bauxite Hills before,” said MD and CEO Simon Finnis.
“We have implemented several operational changes that will improve efficiencies, and will continue to focus on mining and shipping rates and lowering operational costs, as we are always looking for improvements in our system and processes.
“From what we are seeing in the market and from our ongoing negotiations, the demand for Metro bauxite is returning, and confidence is returning to the market more widely,” said Finnis.
Metro in 2020 halted mining and in September of last year ceased shipping operations after failing to secure offtake agreements for the remainder of the 2020 year. Instead, the company brought forward its wet-season shutdown at the Bauxite Hills mine.
The earlier-than-normal closure will result in a number of staff and contractor redundancies.
Metro on Wednesday said that the company was now directly employing over 120 people from the Cape communities and the Cairns region, with a further 130 staff to be employed by contractors at the mine.