Australia’s newest copper producer Hillgrove has completed loading its first shipment containing 10 099 wet metric tonnes of concentrate from the Kanmantoo underground mine.
The company achieved its first shipment in less than 12 months since operations at the South Australian mine started.
“Seeing the first shipment of copper concentrate from the Kanmantoo underground set sail for Lianyungang, China, was a significant milestone for the company,” said Hillgrove CEO and MD Lachlan Wallace.
He added that the timing could not be better, with copper prices recently hitting all-time highs.
“The higher price not only results in greater revenue from the existing plan, but potentially enables mineralisation that was previously sub-economic to be brought into an expanded mine plan, resulting in more copper being produced and sold into the higher price environment,” said Wallace.
The inaugural shipment is the accumulation of production since processing started in February. The frequency of shipments will increase as Kanmantoo ramps up to the planned rate of production.
The Stage 1 mine is expected to produce 43 500 t of copper in concentrate over an initial four years.