BHP warns Australian mining not ready for low-cost competitors
The boom in demand from China’s industrialization is now “past the period of aggressive growth,” BHP’s Australia President said.
The Century Zinc Mine, which was officially re-opended last month, made revenue of A$27.2M from zinc concentrate sales in September.
The company earned $7.04M (A$9.8M) to date from production of 7,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate and $12.5M (A$17.4M) from the forward sale of 13,000 tonnes of October production.
Century says its first concentrate shipment to China is scheduled for the end of this month. Century is planning for a feed rate of about 8.0Mtpa into its processing plant.
In November 2017 the mine’s owner, New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ), raised $52.9 million to restart.
The mine was the third largest zinc mine in the world prior to its closure in 2016 and still hosts mineral resources in excess of 2.6Mt of zinc, 0.7Mt of lead and 42.5Moz of silver.
Creative Commons image of moth courtesy of Mike Lewinski
