Hillgrove Resources has reached a Final Investment Decision and will proceed with Stage 1 development of the Kanmantoo Underground Copper Mine in South Australia, on track to begin production early next year.
With a 3.6Mtpa processing plant already in place, the mine is projected to produce 43.5kt of copper concentrate over the first four years from two of the nine known mineral lodes on the mining lease.
And exploration drilling is already underway on the remaining lodes, lying open along strike and at depth and expected to significantly expand the project’s production and mine life.
Hillgrove Managing Director Lachlan Wallace said it was an exciting milestone, coming on the back of a $38 million placement and share purchase plan which left the company fully funded and debt free to begin development.
In anticipation of a positive investment decision, a great team has been established with a high level of underground experience, and they have wasted no time in getting the underground development underway,” Mr Wallace said.
Wallace added that development has quickly ramped up to planned levels, and ore was already being stockpiled ahead of first production.
“A further 130 new jobs will be created as we ramp up towards full production over the next 6 months. The attraction of building a new mine in the beautiful Adelaide Hills has resulted in strong interest from many experienced operators and technical professionals wishing to pursue their mining career, without comprising work-life balance with a fly-in fly out roster,” he said.
South Australian Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Energy & Mining Tom Koutsantonis said the project already holds community support and the creation of new jobs will be welcome news.
“It’s fantastic to see the Kanmantoo Copper Mine reaching Financial Investment Decision and on track to produce first copper early next year. Copper is arguably the most important critical mineral as the world looks to decarbonise. Mines such as this stand to help address the copper deficit while stimulating the state and local economy,” Mr Koutsantonis said.
Road to production
Originally mined in 1846, opencut operations at the Kanmantoo mine last came in the 1970’s, and its new owners have continued to increase resources and de-risk operations at the historic site, increasing the Mineral Resource Estimate by 600 per cent to close to 7Mt.
A proposed pumped hydro energy storage project with AGL Energy went south in 2020, but a stage 1 economic assessment early this year showing an expanded mine life from one of the lowest capital intense projects in the world spurred Hillgrove on to secure capital and reboot a mine sitting just 55 kilometres outside of Adelaide.
Copper on the bone
Hillgrove see plenty more metals to add to Kanmantoo, and have established an Exploration Target of 10-20Mt at 0.9-1.3% Cu and 0.1-0.3 g/t Au to add to the mine, holding a number of additional exploration opportunities to leverage as it becomes Australia’s newest copper producer.
