SOUTH AUSTRALIA –
Oz Minerals of Adelaide has given the go-ahead to this country’s largest undeveloped copper project – the A$916 million Carrapateena project. The first phase of work will begin next month with first production planned for late 2019.
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Location of the Carrapateena project. (Credit: Oz Minerals)[/caption]
Carrapateena lies around 160 km north of Port Augusta and 100 km southeast of Olympic Dam. It was bought by OZ Minerals in 2011. An underground mine with sub-level stoping is to be developed. The 11,500-t/d concentrator will feature SAG and ball milling followed by flotation. Annual output will be 65,000 tonnes of copper and 67,000 oz. of gold. As many as 1,000 jobs will be created during construction, and 550 permanent jobs during operation.
Oz puts the proved and probable ore reserve at 79 million tonnes averaging 1.8% copper and 0.7 g/t gold. The reserves contain approximately 1.4 million tonnes of copper and 1.8 million oz. of gold.
The feasibility study and the update for Carrapateena may be read at their entirety by clicking
here.
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