True North Copper (TNC) has announced it will soon officially break ground at its Cloncurry copper project in North West Queensland.
After mining preparations progressed this month, TNC confirmed it will begin mining ore from the project’s Wallace North deposit before the end of the year.
TNC has been busy mobilising equipment and support infrastructure to Wallace North, as well as preparing access roads for haulage.
The mining ramp-up will initially build ore stockpiles, with haulage expected to start in mid-May.
Oxide ore will be transported by road train to the Cloncurry operations hub’s heap leach. Sulphide ore will be transported to a nearby concentrator for toll treatment under TNC’s toll-milling agreement with Glencore.
“This is an exciting and transformative phase for TNC,” True North Copper managing director Marty Costello said.
“CCP project economics confirm a robust mining operation that is low risk and low-cost. Projected mine revenue is $367 million with a free cash flow of $111 million.
“Our plans to develop Mount Oxide into our next mine continue as we finalise the Vero mineral resource re-estimation and optimisation study.”
TNC has finalised agreements with a number of mining services contractors and explosives have been supplied to its existing magazines in preparation for mining at Wallace North.
Mining rates at commencement are planned at 300,000 tonnes per year with volumes increasing over the initial three months.
In addition to Wallace North, Cloncurry currently incorporates the Great Australia Mine reserve which hosts the Great Australia Mine, Taipan, and Orphan Shear deposits.
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