Golden Grove said that strong metal prices has led to the re opening of its Scuddles mine in the Mid West. The plant, east of Geraldton, produces zinc and copper concentrate but a sharp drop in metal prices during the global financial crisis forced the mine into care and maintenance in 2009.

Mr Bruce Farmer MD of Golden Grove said that the drop in prices made production at the mine unviable. Metal prices have bounced back strongly which has made the venture feasible again. Metal prices have increased so that the value of the ore that's there has increased and there is an opportunity to mine it.

He said that it's increased employment, we have a company called GBF contract miners opening that mine for us and that would have increased employment by about 50 or 60 people.

Mr Farmer said that he is confident metal prices will remain strong in the future. We're doing it to make a profit and the return will depend on the metal price at the time when we go to market but we're doing it because it's profitable. We expect it to remain so because society is needing more and more metal to support the standard of living that we have.

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)