Aeris poised to probe Barbara mine potential

New owner Aeris Resources will kick off a drilling campaign within the next fortnight at the mothballed Barbara copper mine in North-West Queensland. Aeris executive chairman Andre Labuschagne said the million-dollar program would help determine the potential to begin underground operations there as Mount Colin wound up. "It's quite a large program. The whole idea is to draw the resource out, to get it to an indicated resource so we can put a proper mine plan around the underground mine for Barbara," he said. Aeris acquired Barbara and the Mount Colin underground operation in a $234 million takeover of Round Oak Minerals, which also added the Jaguar zinc-copper mine in Western Australia and the Stockman copper-zinc development project in Victoria to its assets. The Mount Colin underground operation has a current planned mine life of about two years and is forecast to produce 12.5kt CuEq in FY23. The Barbara project, about 60km north-east of Mount Isa, consists of the Barbara deposit itself and the smaller LillyMay deposit. Open-pit mining ceased in late 2020 at Barbara, which has substantial resources below the current mined pits flagged as offering potential for a new underground mine of equivalent scale to Mount Colin. The resource stands at 1.8 million tonnes grading at 1.95 per cent copper and 0.16g/t gold. Mr Labuschagne said the fact the previous owners had not forged ahead with the underground development was likely due to the benefits of sequencing the operations so that mining could move from Mount Colin to Barbara. "It just makes sense with the capacity of the toll treating arrangements with the current contractor in place. You basically pick up the camp, pick up the office infrastructure and move it to Barbara and mine Barbara. So, I think it was always on their radar to be one of the next potential mines," he said. Aside from Barbara and Mount Colin, the Round Oak acquisition brings a large package of exploration tenements in North West Queensland. "We have Hazel Creek, which is already in a resource, which looks very interesting. We've got Soldiers Cap. We've got some tenements around Cloncurry," Mr Labuschagne said. "So there's quite a huge amount of exploration opportunities, which has already been identified as part of the whole acquisition of the North Queensland assets." Mr Labuschagne said Aeris Resources had looked at various assets in North West Queensland over the years due to the opportunities the region presented. "For me, the task for our business development team is very clear that within the next six months we need to build a business plan around that region," he said. "There are opportunities to talk to some of our neighboring explorers. There are opportunities to talk to other operators in the region. "We know that Glencore is looking for opportunities to add more tonnes to the Mount Isa process facility. So for us, it's about using this opportunity to create a long-term business in North Queensland."

Aeris poised to probe Barbara mine potential

Industry Queensland

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