Aurelia Metals is making plans for a major expansion at its Peak processing plant near Cobar in New South Wales.
The decision follows an optimisation scoping study undertaken by the company, which has laid out a future in which all ore from Aurelia’s nearby newly-opened Federation mine will be processed at the facility.
Peak will expand from an 800,000 tonne (t) per year capacity to up to 1.2 million tonnes (Mt).
Aurelia previously outlined a plan to preferentially feed Federation mine ores to the Peak processing plant ahead of a restart of the nearby Hera processing plant, once the Peak processing plant was at capacity.
The study evaluated a range of utilisation and throughput options for the Peak and Hera processing facilities, ultimately finding untapped potential at Peak which would leave Hera available to process any additional Aurelia or third-party ores.
Peak will require crusher and materials handling upgrades, as well as the addition of a ball mill for tertiary grinding capacity.
“This expansion phase is an important milestone for Aurelia and underscores the confidence we have in our infrastructure to deliver growth in our base metals business with minimal disruptions to the current plant and for a capital cost not materially exceeding the estimated cost to restart Hera,” Aurelia managing director and chief executive officer Bryan Quinn said.
“The business achieves higher net value from processing ore into separate product concentrates at Peak, with better water and energy intensity outcomes in line with our sustainability strategy.
“This supports lower cost operations for our future cash flows. Moreover, expanding the Peak processing plant would take Aurelia’s overall processing capacity to more than 1.5Mtpa and preserve a valuable option to further increase base metal production using the Hera processing facility.”
Aurelia recently fired the first stope at Federation, which hosts high-grade zinc, lead, gold and copper mineralisation.
Subscribe to Safe to Work to get the safety news that matters to the Australian mining industry.
