Zak Mir talks to Colin Bird, Executive Chairman, Xtract Resources, in the wake of the mining study by independent consultants Optimal Mining Solutions (Pty) Ltd to examine the economics of a 20Mpta and 25Mpta open pit operation on the Bushranger Copper-Gold Project in central New South Wales, Australia.
Xtract Resources (XTR)Â updated on the mining study by independent consultants Optimal Mining Solutions (Pty) Ltd to examine the economics of a 20Mpta and 25Mpta open pit operation on the Bushranger Copper-Gold Project in central New South Wales, Australia.
Optimal Mining has identified that the economics of the Project can be improved by way of modern ore sorting technology and the full Study will be completed based on further test work already underway on this option. XTR said the initial work by Optimal Mining shows that pre-concentration of ore has the potential to significantly increase cash flows from an open pit operation.
On a project with similar grades to Bushranger, pre-concentration of the copper mineralisation reduced the amount of material to be concentrated by over 50%, while retaining 87% of the contained copper metal.
Comment: It has been clear that the market has not appreciated the magnitude of Xtract’s Bushranger Project, and so the intervention of Optimal Mining to make it all the more efficient in terms of the mining process, should boost investor confidence. Xtract is going down the pre-concentrate route, which makes sense since why should it put waste material into the entire processing circuit when it would want only high-grade pay ore? This should positively impact the entire economics of Bushranger.
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