True North Copper (ASX:TNC) will be starting mining ore at the Wallace North Project in the coming weeks in May, as part of a ‘transformative’ phase for the Cloncurry Copper Project in Queensland.
During March 2024, mining preparations at Wallace North progressed, with mobilisation of mining equipment and support infrastructure to project site complete, as well as upcoming mining activities prepared.
True North, which has a market capitalisation of $39.40 million, has also completed short-term mine scheduling with technical services teams, and on-boarded skilled mining fleet operators.
Managing Director Marty Costello says: “This is an exciting and transformative phase for True North Copper. Thanks to the hard work of our mining operations team we are prepared and ready to deliver on our Cloncurry Copper Project Mining Restart Plan with mining commencing at Wallace North in early Q4 FY24.
CCP project economicals 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 Mt Oxide into our next mine continue as we finalise the Vero mineral resource re-estimation and optimisation study.”
True North says the mining ramp-up will initially build ore stockpiles, with haylage expected to start in mid-May 2024.
Oxide ore will be transported by road train to the project’s operations hub’s heap leach, while sulphide ore will be transported to a nearby concentrator for toll treatment under the company’s toll-milling agreement with Glencore (LON:GLEN).
As previously reported, True North conducted a mine restart study in December 2023, and stated mining operations would begin at Wallace North, focused on targeting ‘higher grade’ ores from surface mining.
Wallace North sits 35km from the Cloncurry project. The project is mine ready and survey set-out to the mine footprint, which occurred this month.
The Cloncurry project is centred around the Great Australian Mine Complex (GAM) in northwest Queensland. The company has obtained full permits for copper oxide and sulphide produced at the GAM.
The CCP currently incorporates the Great Australia Mine reserve (includes Great Australia Mine [GAM], Taipan and Orphan Shear deposits) and the Wallace North Reserve4 totalling 4.7Mt grading 0.80% Cu and 0.13g/t Au containing 37,500t of copper and 20,000oz of gold at a strip ratio of 4.2.
True North Copper is a copper, cobalt, and critical minerals mining company, headquartered in Cairns. The company has 2 ‘major’ projects, namely the Cloncurry and Mt Oxide projects.
As of 31 December 2023, the company had $1.635 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: True North Copper
