Austral on $40m mission to extend copper complex

Austral Resources plans to pour $40 million into exploration over the next four years to pin down further feed for its North-West Queensland copper operations. It completed a three-hole drill program (721.2m) at Flying Horse pit last month to collect fresh sulphide core for metallurgical test work. And the company has detailed its plans for an initial 12,650m drill program at Lady Colleen, the Lady Annie mining lease and Dividend prospect in the area surrounding its Mount Kelly heap leach SXEW plant. That plant has started processing ore from the new Anthill mine, which should see Austral producing 10,000tpa of copper cathode from mid-2022 - bankrolling its planned exploration and development activities. Austral intends to fund exploration through a $10 million per annum exploration budget over the next four years and by selective joint venturing of portions of its tenure holdings to enhance discovery potential. Austral chief executive officer Steve Tambanis said the company listed on the ASX late last year with a large JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 420,000 tonnes of contained copper. "The first 40,000t of copper cathode are being mined and processed from our new Anthill mine. This provides strong cashflows over the next four years and is effectively the springboard and financial support for our intensive exploration and development activities," he said. "So, what are we doing to commercialise the next 40,000t of copper? "We have commenced our first drilling programs to discover additional oxide ore feed for ourplant. Lady Colleen, Dividend and Lady Annie are amongst our first prospects for evaluation, withmore to come as the drill rig completes each first pass program. "Our sulphide prospects have excellent short-term upside. Lady Colleen’s 5.6Mt at 0.89 per cent copper sulphide mineral resource estimate is being re-assessed to determine its potential for a lower tonnage,higher grade resource that could be open pit mined and trucked to a nearby sulphide concentrator. "We are also commencing metallurgical test work to see if sulphide mineralisation is amenable to processing on our heap leach by utilising a new processing technology. "In addition, we are drilling to increase the Lady Colleen resource where we have identified the potential for extensions to mineralisation." Austral ambition to extend mine life Mr Tambanis said the SXEW plant at Mount Kelly had considerable spare capacity. "We will conduct similar evaluations for Flying Horse, Lady Annie and Mount Clarke," he said. "Austral’s intention was never to operate a mine for four years and then shut down. Our ambition is toextend mine life through discoveries, commercialise our current resources and significantly buildupon our current resource inventories. "We have a pathway to do so with funding and a large strategic landholding in the Mount Isa Inlier with demonstrated copper fertility. "It’s great to be one of a few copper producers in Australia. It’s even better to have a strongly increasing production profile in the current high copper price environment." Main image at top of page: Diamond drill core containing sulphide copper mineralisation from drillholeMTKD010 at Flying Horse pit. Below: Diamond drill rig at Austral Resources' Flying Horse pit, May 2022.

Austral on $40m mission to extend copper complex

Industry Queensland

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