Major milestone in Chinova’s return to production

The first 5000-tonne export shipment of gold-copper concentrate has left Townsville Port bound for Hartree Metals in a milestone for the reinvigorated Chinova Resources operations in North-West Queensland. This comes as the company's Starra pits continue their ramp up. “Despite some localised production outages attributed to the recent rain events, our pit development remains on track,” Osborne general manager Dee Tahan said. “We are fortunate that our pits are located in the Selwyn ranges which naturally avoid major flooding when compared to some of our peers in the district. "We are also grateful for the investment in the 48km bitumen-sealed haul road and upgraded river crossing that the company made last year.” This road connects the Starra pits to the revamped Osborne processing plant, 150km south of Cloncurry. “Without that sealed road, we’d be stuck for weeks. It’s already paying for itself,” Mr Tahan said. He said part of the funding for this investment came from Hartree, who was proving to be a strong development partner for Chinova, with support via a $US30 million loan and offtake agreement. Mr Tahan is positive about the growth path for the company. “Within weeks we’ll be on to the higher grade ore in the open pits. That should see us becoming a regular shipper of concentrate out of Townsville,” he said. “Then we need to turn our attention immediately to developing the Starra underground. That will extend the mine life out to at least 2028.”. Meanwhile, the company has a 9000m drill program underway to test the potential to revisit the Kulthor ore body, which is only 2km from Osborne processing plant. “This is part of the next horizon of growth for Chinova," Mr Tahan said. "Our shareholder has supported us with significant capital to add a sulphurdisation circuit to the Osborne plant. The challenge is on us to use this new capability to revisit previously abandoned ore bodies like Kulthor and determine if we can now use the Osborne plant to extend their life.” The sulphurdisation circuit allows the Osborne plant to recover copper via flotation from oxide ores and, with it, the significant quantities of gold found in the oxide ores of Starra and Kulthor. The recent announcement of the Queensland Government's acquisition of the CopperString transmission project is also on Mr Tahan’s mind. “Our operations in the Selwyn Ranges give us a platform to pursue the other, longer-term, growth projects we have in the region like SWAN-Mount Elliott, Merlin and Mount Dore," he said. "These will be a step closer to fruition with access to a reliable, scalable, affordable power supply.”

Major milestone in Chinova’s return to production

Industry Queensland

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