url opts for production route...

JUNIOR MINING
FOCUS ON SULPHIDE MINERLISATION

Source: www.mineweb.net

Universal opts for production route with fastest mill delivery

Two small mills, instead of one large, will mean earlier and more flexible copper-gold production for Universal’s Queensland deposit.

Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Tuesday , 27 Mar 2007

PERTH -

The option of focussing purely on sulphide mineralisation at the Roseby copper-gold mineralisation looks like being set in concrete by Universal Resources Ltd, the Perth-based company planning to open up this large Queensland deposit.

Universal will dispense with an original plan to establish a 38 foot diameter SAG mill on site, and will opt for establishing two smaller mills that will provide greater operating flexibility. There is an important second factor to this: a shorter waiting list on delivery as, by now, the bigger SAG mill would be on a waiting list that would stretch well beyond the mine commissioning target of early 2009.

Universal's managing director Michael Hulmes told Mineweb that Universal was going to opt for a lower throughput than originally perceived to achieve quality production. The favoured blueprint was to use two smaller mills to produce in concentrates 34,000 tonnes of copper and 14,700 ounces of gold and, assuming a copper price of $US2/lb, provide a project payback of $3.6 years.

The company said earlier this month that forecast capital expenditure was $A338 million ($US273.3 M), including major contingency costs and $A48 M ($US38.81 M) to acquire a mining fleet.

Hulmes said the key issues ahead were getting the mining lease granted, arranging power supply (though taking the lower milling rate may allow Universal to draw power from the Mount Isa regional grid), and getting two mills from China on site.

This week the company announced more high-grade hits on the Bedford North and Lady Clayre Zone F sulphide deposits as part of the focus on defining higher grade mining zones. Roseby has 10 deposits over a strike length of 25 kilometres.

Some of the better hits at Bedford North were 6 metres from 31m depth grading 4.96% copper and 2.1 grams/tonne gold, and 25m from 46m @ 1.75% Cu and 0.28 g/t Au, including 11m @ 3.06% Cu and 0.38 g/t gold. At Lady Clayre one 26m section included 14m from 81m @ 1.93% Cu and 1.93 g/t Au, and another hole had 11m from 87m of 3.37% Cu and 1.22 g/t Au.

Roseby was the project that Universal's chairman Peter Ingram secured early this decade from the failing Pasminco Ltd (resurrected as Zinifex Ltd) to float the company in 2002 as one of the first new breed copper explorers in Queensland.

Recently, Universal lifted the resource at Bedford where mineralisation covers a 3 km strike. The Bedford North and Bedford South deposits have an inferred 1.77 Mt @ 0.93% Cu and 0.24 g/t Au, using an 0.3% cut-off grade.

The stratabound deposits at Roseby contain a resource of 90 Mt @ 0.64% Cu, taking in native copper, with Blackard and Scanlan as the two biggest oxide deposits. The hydrothermal mineralisation is 35.2 Mt @ 0.82% Cu (mainly chalcopyrite) and 0.18 g/t gold.

Universal has an offtake agreement with a Chinese metals house for the first 50,000 tonnes of copper metal and then Xstrata has "the second bite" - seen as an ideal processing partner as Xtrata's mining-refining complex at Mount Isa is only 160 km away.

About three years ago there was a corporate wrestling match over Universal between CopperCo Ltd which wanted to link Roseby to its plans in north west Queensland and Xstrata which had recently taken over Mt Isa. Xtrata, which has an 11.47% stake in Universal, won the day. However, CopperCo is still listed as second major shareholder with 8.95%.


End.

Cheers, Pie