Reuters reported that Swiss mining giant Xstrata has begun constructing its USD 246 million Lady Loretta zinc, lead and silver underground mine in North West Queensland.
The mine is to be developed and operated by Xstrata's zinc arm and is 140 kilometers North West of Xstrata Zinc's Mount Isa operations. It is slated to begin operations by the end of 2013 and is expected to produce an annual average of 126,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate and 40,000 tonnes of lead in concentrate over its 10 year mine life.
Xstrata Zinc took full ownership of the Lady Loretta deposit in April after acquiring the remaining 25% stake from Perth based Cape Lambert Resources for USD 30 million in cash.
Miner Xstrata posted 6% increase in copper output during the Q2 broadly in line with forecasts, as volume in Chile and Australia helped offset the impact of a weather battered start to the year.
Xstrata had reported a drop in copper output in the Q1 when it was hit by severe weather conditions at its Collahuasi mine in Chile and across the southern hemisphere. But it said that mined copper production in the H1 totalled 434,046 tonnes broadly in line with a year ago.
Xstrata's coal division also reported recovery from a flood hit start to the year with output in the H1 flat on the year ago period at 38.5 million tonnes as the miner bounced back in the Q2 after heavy rains in Queensland and Western Australia.
Xstrata said that despite rapid recovery from the Queensland floods delays in repairing infrastructure prevented sales from its Rolleston operation while recovery work at the Blakefield South mine will continue to the end of the year.
Volume at its Cerrejon project in Colombia dipped due to heavy rains while South African thermal coal production was broadly flat as the ramping up of its Goedgevonden project offset changes to integrate its operations and cut costs.
Analyst at Liberum Ash Lazenby said that given they get some 80% of earnings from coal and copper, those are the numbers that really matter, and actually they delivered pretty well there. Coal had the potential to be below our estimates but they did well though that was offset by pricing a tad below our estimates. Overall a small positive and that is what is being reflected in the market this morning."
(Sourced from Reuters)
