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CopperCo opens new mine in north Qld
Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font October 19, 2007 - 7:09PM

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Copper producer CopperCo Ltd officially opened its Lady Annie copper oxide project - the first new base metal mine to be developed in North Queensland in more than a decade.

First copper cathode was shipped from the project last week and it is expected 1,350 tonnes of cathode will be produced, shipped and sold by the end of this month.

Production commenced at a rate of 19,000 tonnes a year and is expected to be ramped up to 25,000 tonnes a year when the company's plant comes on line mid next year.

Thereafter, the production target will be 30,000 tonnes a year.

Managing director Brian Rear said demand for copper had grown by 3.9 per cent a year for the past 10 years.

"Our key focus will be continuing to successfully extract the resource at Lady Annie and undertaking an active exploration program which we expected will contribute to an expansion of our resource inventory," Mr Rear said.

To date, the company has invested more than $100 million in the mine, which has a resource of about 33 million tonnes.

It is expected to have an initial mine life of eight to nine years.

CopperCo has an offtake agreement with Swiss giant Glencore for life of mine production, which is priced at a premium to the London Metals Exchange price.