LONDON (Alliance News) - Strategic Minerals PLC on Thursday said copper production from its processing facility at the Leigh Creek copper mine has restarted.
The Mountain of Light facility, at Leigh Creek in south Australia, has completed its first tonne of copper production in cement form, Strategic said.
Strategic is hoping to be the largest copper cement producer in Australia by the middle of 2020.
The company has also increased its resource for the Paltridge North deposit at Leigh Creek by 46%. The indicated resource is now 909,000 tonnes at 0.8% copper, and the inferred resource is now 514,000 tonnes at 0.7% copper.
Managing Director John Peters said: "The production of the first tonne of high grade copper concentrate, in the form of cement, is a major milestone in the development of Leigh Creek."
"At acquisition, in March 2018, a strategic plan was adopted that set out a low capital cost to re-start operations, an ambitious time frame to initial cash flows, high operating margins and upside potential for the copper resources within the existing mining leases."
"The restart of production in 13 months from acquisition has reinforced the board's confidence the acquisition of Leigh Creek will prove to be a major value added asset for the company and will provide significant on-going after tax cash flows from 2020," Peters added.
Shares were 2.4% lower on Thursday afternoon at a price of 1.61 pence each.
Strategic Minerals (SML)