Austral Resources Australia (ASX:AR1) expects to appoint a construction contractor before the end of 2026 following the arrival of its Rocklands mill onsite.
The company reports its 4.75-megawatt semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill has been delivered by road from Cobar, New South Wales, to the Rocklands Copper Project in Queensland.
Austral purchased the mill domestically to avoid the higher costs and longer lead times associated with sourcing equipment overseas.
The company engaged CMD Consulting to review and redesign the rig’s front-end comminution circuit and GR Engineering Services to undertake the front-end engineering design (FEED) study.
The redesigned mill features a simpler front-end circuit, replacing the existing three-stage cone-crushing circuit with a single SAG mill.
According to Austral, the simpler circuit will reduce operational risk, lower capital intensity, and align Rocklands with proven copper concentrator designs used globally.
Chairman David Newling says the mill was “the largest single procurement risk” in the Rocklands refurbishment program.
“The team has done a great job securing the approvals and managing the logistics to get the mill to site,” Newling says.
“We’ve made a significant investment to purchase this equipment and bring it to Rocklands, and we’re keen to get it installed, get it spinning, and our feedstock ready as we bring Rocklands back into production.”
The company plans to appoint a contractor and use internal resources to manage the modifications. It expects construction to be completed and production to begin in the second half of 2027.
Austral operates two processing facilities in Queensland: the Western Operations at Mt Kelly, which includes a copper cathode plant with a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum, and the Eastern Operations at Rocklands, featuring a copper sulphide concentrator with a nameplate capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum.
The company holds a mineral resource estimate of 64 million tonnes at 0.73% copper, containing 468,414 tonnes of copper, alongside 2,101km² of exploration tenure in northwest Queensland.
Austral Resources Australia is a Queensland-focused pure-play copper producer and explorer, with both oxide and sulphide processing operations.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
Main image: Austral Resources Australia
