OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena mine produces first saleable copper
South Australia’s new, $980 million under-construction mine has produced its first saleable copper concentrate – a much-awaited milestone for OZ Minerals.
SA Business
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SA miner OZ Minerals has produced first saleable copper concentrate at its under-construction Carrapateena mine, 160 kms north of Port Augusta.
The much-awaited milestone comes after OZ Minerals hit a production hurdle last month due to a ‘wrong part’ being supplied by a vendor.
That delay led to project development cost of Carrapateena at first concentrate to be upgraded to between $950 million and $980 million, instead of the previous $920-950 million.
However, achievement of the concentrate production milestone met the commitment made to the board when it first approved the project in August 2017.
“Sufficient saleable concentrate is expected to be produced to the filter feed tank over the coming days to then complete our first concentrate press,” the company said in a statement.
Carrapateena is the second major project for OZ Minerals in SA, which currently owns and operates the Prominent Hill mine near Coober Pedy.
“Over 280,000 tonnes of development ore is stockpiled on the surface as the mine now enters a faster circa 12-month ramp-up towards reaching a 4.25 million tonne per annum throughput rate by the end of 2020, dependent upon the cave performing as expected.”
Shares rose more than two per cent to $10.88 in afternoon trading on Friday.
OZ Minerals chief executive Andrew Cole said the milestone “represents the collaboration, support and hard work of a great many people including our operations and construction teams and the large number of contractors involved.”
“The project has generated over 1000 direct jobs from construction through to production as well as many thousands of indirect benefits to South Australia,” Mr Cole said.
“Our key operational focus remains on underground development as we ramp-up the mine.
“The streamlined mine design with an expanded footprint will improve cave establishment, reduce risk during the ramp-up phase and may enable future annual throughput expansion opportunities as we continue to assess options to expand capacity above 4.25Mt annually.”
OZ Minerals is undertaking a block cave expansion scoping study to increase the life and production capacity of Carrapateena from 2025.
“Exploration also continues around Carrapateena to improve our understanding of the broader province potential,” Mr Cole said.
Production for 2020, as the ramp up progresses, is expected to be in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of copper and 35,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold.
Longer term and more detailed guidance will be released with the fourth quarter report at the end of January.
Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the OZ team should be proud of their efforts.
“The scale of the mine, coupled with its remoteness is a testament to the women and men who have brought life this operation in such a short period of time.
“Oz Minerals with help from its construction partners and local community have delivered a safe and socially and environmentally responsible mining project that will deliver benefits for the South Australian economy for decades to come,” he said.