Plan to expand Century mining

THE reworked operations of the Century zinc mine in northwest Queensland could soon have a doubling of its workforce to more than 400 people under a proposed expansion.

Asx-listed New Century Resources, whose shares are in a trading halt awaiting announcements of new financing provisions, has released the results of a feasibility study.

That study looks at supplementing its existing tailings reprocessing operations with new resources including the historic Silver King deposit first mined in the 1890s.

The study finds a strong proposition for developing the Silver King and East Fault Block deposits into new mines, providing increased zinc outputs, a new lead product with silver credits and a reduction in overall Century-wide production costs.

Increased average lead metal in concentrate production of 33,000 tonnes per annum, containing 972,000 ounces of silver is forecast, together with an additional 22,000 tonnes per annum of zinc metal in concentrate.

Pre-production capital costs of $66.7 million is estimated, while the on-site labour force is expected to peak at 400 people.

The mine operations at present employ about 200 people.

The Century mine, about 250km northwest of Mount Isa, began in 2000 and was one of the biggest zinc mines in the world producing 475,000 tonnes per year of zinc and 50,000 tonnes per year of lead concentrates.

The mine was placed on care and maintenance in 2016 before it was bought by New Century Resources in 2017.

New Century restarted operations in late 2018, using water jets to mobilise tailings for reprocessing and to rehabilitate the mine.

Some 650,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate has been produced since then, making it one of the top 15 zinc operations globally, but recoveries have not met expectations.

The company is now looking to supplement tailings operations with new mines less than 2km from the processing plant.

It is targeting to make a final investment decision early next year with first production in 2023.

In a statement this week, the company said it was continuing to finalise a material strategic transaction involving an asset acquisition, an equity raise and new environmental bonding arrangements.

It says it will announce details of the transaction on or before October 25.