OZ Minerals’ new Carrapateena mine milestone delayed to Dec.
A wrong part has thrown out a major production milestone for OZ Minerals’ under-construction mega mine in South Australia.
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First production from OZ Minerals’ under-construction mega copper-gold mine in South Australia has been delayed by a month because of a ‘wrong part’ being supplied by a vendor.
Production of Carrapateena’s first saleable concentrate is now targeted for December, the company told investors.
As a result, project development cost of Carrapateena at first concentrate is now expected to be in the range of $950-$980 instead of $920-950 million, the company said.
“The revised timing is due to incorrect vendor supplied items associated with the minerals processing plant which were identified through commissioning checks,” chief executive Andrew Cole said.
“Correct parts have now been sourced and remediation works are underway.”
“The postponement of first concentrate production by a matter of weeks was disappointing considering the remainder of the project construction was either complete or nearing completion, but that it would have no influence on the project ramp up in 2020 given the advanced state of the underground development.”
Carrapateena in the Far North is the second major project for OZ Minerals in SA, which currently owns and operates the Prominent Hill mine near Coober Pedy.
OZ Minerals started first production drilling at the site in October, but the saleable concentrate will come from the stockpiled ore.
Over 200,000 tonnes of ore is now stockpiled in preparation for commissioning of the minerals processing plant and underground development and installation of underground infrastructure is progressing well, Mr Cole said.
As a result of the delay, the 2019 production guidance provided for Carrapateena of 2,000-4,000 tonnes of copper and 3,000 to 6,000 ounces of gold has been removed.
Guidance for Carrapateena for 2020 will be provided with the company’s annual guidance in its December quarter production report, scheduled for late January.
The mine, 160km north of Port Augusta is set to become the second-largest copper mine in South Australia, behind BHP’s Olympic Dam.
OZ Minerals increased its estimate of Carrapateena’s copper resource by 34 per cent, to 5.2 million tonnes, and gold metal resource by 29 per cent, to 7.4 million ounces. It also increased the mine life of Prominent Hill by a year, to 2031.