billion dollar annie

22 October 2007 View all news | Send to a friend | Print


Billion dollar Annie
LYNDSAY JAMESON



CopperCo managing director Brian Rear told the 150 or so attendees the company expected the mine to make a further 20,000 tonnes of virtually-pure copper, with a gross value of $200 million, in the next few months.
“We have invested $100 million in this area so far,” Mr Rear said.

This amount will likely rise to $150 million in the next couple of years with the company’s focus on exploration in the area around the mine.

“Today has been the culmination of three years of planning and very hard work,” he said at the opening.

“I can say, with confidence, all areas of the operation are working to plan.

“We will spend $10 million to $20 million to develop our resource base.”

About one-third of the mine’s 150-strong employees were each sourced from the Mount Isa area, Townsville and Brisbane. A quarter are local indigenous people.

There is on-site accommodation for 150 people and amenities include a gym, two swimming pools and a mess hall.

All of the copper metal, which is made in thin 1m-square sheets called cathodes and bundled into three-tonne blocks, will be sold to Swiss-based commodities trader Glencore International.

“Glencore will market our product throughout Asia predominantly,” he said.

He said the outlook for the global copper market looked good but the company would continue to lower costs in case of price fluctuations.

“Some pundits are saying we’ll enjoy this price throughout 2008,” he said.

He said Lady Annie would be responsible for six per cent of the State’s copper cathode production.

“We hope to increase this to 10 to 15 per cent over the next few years.”

Launch attendees were given a bus tour of the main operations, from mining to processing, last Friday.

The copper is made through a solvent extraction and electro-winning process.

Copper ore is crushed and screened before being dissolved in sulphuric acid, which produces a copper-rich solution.

At the electro-winning plant, an electric current is passed through the solution and the metal is formed on steel blocks before being peeled off.

The Mount Clarke open pit, about 3km east of the processing area, is so far the main pit but will give way to the Lady Annie pit, which should be developed by mid-2008.

Other sites include Lady Brenda and Lady Tresca.

The launch was attended by dignitaries including Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, Mount Isa MP Betty Kiernan and Mayor Ron McCullough.

Mr Lucas said the mine was a lot of hard work coming to fruition and that it was good to see a new, independent mining company in the area.