Explorer, Golden Cross Resources has told shareholders that it is looking to start up its Copper Hills project in New South Wales in a staged build up of development to minimize up front costs.
The company plans to develop Copper Hills near Molong on an initial mining rate of between 2 million tonne to 3 million tonnes per annum and a staged build up that could see selective high grade mining and low grade stockpiling in the early years.
As well as providing lower capital costs, water and power demands will be reduced and the regulatory approval process may be less complex.
Mr Kim Stanton Cook MD of Golden Cross said that the base case was using metal prices, appropriate for definitive feasibility studies of USD 6,000 per tonne for copper and USD 1,000 per oz for gold, a AUD =USD exchange rate of 1:1 and metal recoveries of 75% for copper and 45% for gold. Indications are that a start-up pit containing 30 Mt of ore with head grades of 0.45% copper and 0.5 grams/tonne gold will deliver a profitable mining operation.
If events unfold in the way many economic analysts predict, with sustained high copper and gold prices then the project may be scaled up accordingly. Work was underway preparing for the next resource estimate. Metallurgical testing to improve recoveries using the new core samples has commenced and capital, mining and processing cost estimates are being reviewed.
Latest site layout configurations will all be used to update the evolving mine plans through July and August. Metallurgical test work will also be carried out in China under CUMIC's supervision and samples, matching those being tested in Australia, have been dispatched to Beijing.
Earlier this year Golden Cross received a stage 1 feasibility study from China Automated Control Systems and a technical and economic report from China Nerin Engineering Company. Within the pit blueprint is 10 MT resources with grades of 0.5% copper and 0.66 gram per tonne gold. The project has a total resource of 173 MT 0.31% Cu and 0.26 gram per tonne Au and has a contained 535,000 tonne of copper and 1.47 M oz gold.
(Sourced from www.mineweb.com)
