to mine or not to mine macarthur river, page-5

re: macarthur river.dexter About MRM

McArthur River Mine (MRM) is a zinc-lead mine wholly owned by Xstrata Zinc and located 900 kilometres south-east of Darwin near the Gulf of Carpentaria. It opened in 1995 to mine an ore body which is one of the largest known deposits of zinc and lead in the world. Since then, it has contributed both directly and indirectly around $350 million annually to the Northern Territory economy and employed a workforce of 350.

In August 2005, MRM announced its intention to convert the mine from an underground to an open cut operation to enable production to continue. This development would extend the life of mine by at least 25 years and entail an investment of AUD66 million.

MRM has a measured and indicated ore resource of greater than 120 million tonnes, equating to over 85 years of production at current levels. The mine faces the prospect of closure however, as underground mining is no longer viable. After 10 years of operation, the most accessible underground ore has been extracted and the underground mining operations, which comprise over 100 kilometres of underground tunnels, have become uneconomical. The development of an open-cut operation is the only way to access MRM’s significant ore reserves and secure the future of the operation.

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No % figures on the resource although there must be some being measured and indicated.

All that I could find for the moment.

Rest assured if this doesnt get the go-ahead it puts another large hole in the supply of concentrate and would have a fairly dramatic effect on the zinc price not that its going to need it in the next year or so from the looks.

d.