kanmantoo copper mine to open in december

Article in today's Advertiser...

CONSTRUCTION is in full swing on SA's next copper mine to be open by December at Kanmantoo.

More than 100 workers are working to build the mine with a targeted opening date in December.

Mine owner Hillgrove Resources' board is meeting this afternoon in the site office block which was officially opened today by Mineral Resources Development Minister Paul Holloway.

The construction phase was a significant milestone and an indicator of the economic benefits for the region, Mr Holloway said.

"Mining has a very large multiplier effect," Mr Holloway said.

"You only have to drive through Callington to see the support industry that's springing up to see just how powerful the mining industry can be as a multiplier."

The mine - situated between the towns of Kanmantoo and Callington - will be the closest operational mine to Adelaide.

It is a reopening of a mine which closed in 1978 and Hillgrove aims to export 21,000 tonnes a year of copper from the site.

This will be in the form of concentrate averaging 27.5 per cent copper with gold and silver credits.

Hillgrove has an offtake agreement with JP Morgan Metals which expects to export to China.

Hillgrove chairman and former Liberal premier Dean Brown said the mine was being established under a strict environmental regime and following extensive community consultation.

"We've worked with the local community for five years," Mr Bown said.

"They had 129 issues they raised through consultations.

"We've settled completely on 123 of them and we've reached a compromise on the other six."

Issues included resolving water need by negotiating to take recycled water from Mount Barker Council's Laratinga treatment facility, agreeing to leave some pockets of native vegetation undisturbed and building a by-pass road so trucks did not travel through the Callington village.

Hillgrove has also pledged to rehabilitate the site - including improving the existing waste mound left by the previous mine operators.

Hillgrove managing director Drew Simonsen, who joined he company in July last year, said the milestone of first steel being erected on site was of great significance.

"This stuff is real," he said, gazing over the site where the processing plant is being built.

Hillgrove bought a used processing plant from a West Australian mine. This has been dismantled and transported to Kanmantoo and will be reassembled on foundations being built at the moment.

Mr Simonsen said there were about 130 workers on site now and this would increase as the constructon phase peaked.

"Over the next couple of months we will ramp up our employment," Mr Simonsen said.

Hillgrove has an initial 10-year mining lease and expects to need about 150 people in ongoing operational jobs with another 200 to 300 people employed in support industry roles.

"Our objective is to try to recruit locally," Mr Brown aid.

A big advantage of Kanmantoo was its proximity to Adelaide Hills towns, Murray Bridge and Adelaide, he said.

"People can enjoy the benefit of their family life but still work on a mine," he said.