$200m NT copper mine on track for September construction start up

THE Territory’s $200m Jervois copper mine and the jobs that go with it, is on track

Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison with Denis Wood, Regional Director for Kentor Minerals, looking forward to the next stages of the Jervois Base Metal Project. Picture: Che Chorley

THE Territory’s $200m Jervois copper mine and the jobs that go with it, is on track for an August or September start for the 18-month construction program.

All up the Jervois project will create more than 650 construction and operations jobs.

KGL Resources executive chairman Denis Wood, who is in Darwin to meet with the NT Mining Minister Nicole Manison and government departments, said one of the biggest hurdles to be conquered would be getting workers. He said the preference was to hire a Northern Territory workforce.

“Believe it or not there is a skills shortage across a whole raft of areas in the mining sector,” Mr Wood said.

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“We have to build a camp, a power station, and undertake civil works and we’ll need a whole range of staff.

“Getting chefs is already proving a challenge.”

Prior to coming to Darwin, Mr Wood has spent the past week at the Jervois base metal project, 380km northeast of Alice Springs.

“We just started up our first rig to settle it down and I met with the local pastoralists and the local community … it has been 12 months since I have been able to get back on site and this is the first drilling we have been able to do since then,” he said.

“I anticipate somewhere between August and end of September for the completion of the whole process — that’s financing, the feasibility study and so on.

“We have a capital raising underway, we have $5 million in the bank, I’d like to get $20 million to add to that.

“However $20 million is enough.”

Mr Wood said the Jervois mine is exceptionally well placed to enter the world copper market as a supplier.

“An electric car uses four times as much copper as a conventional car,” Mr Wood said.

“There are very few mines ready to go and the world is facing a copper shortage in the future.

“This will hit the production of electric cars, lithium batteries and so on.

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“Jervois has a mine life forecast of close to eight years, but I believe there is a lot more copper on this site to extend the mine life beyond that.”

Mr Wood is also impressed with the recent Geoscience data from the East Tennant region of the Barkly Tableland which shows the area is highly prospective for minerals, particularly copper and gold.

“This is just the beginning for that particular area and we have some other leases in the area so we are very interested in that,” he said.