Overlooking the Great Australia mine within the Cloncurry project. Image: True North Copper
True North Copper (TNC) has commenced clearing activities and blast hole drilling at the Wallace North deposit that sits within the Cloncurry copper project (CCP) in north-west Queensland.
TNC’s personnel is set operate the dry hire equipment at Wallace North, most of which is already on-site. The company is currently recruiting for the operations team, which is close to finalisation, with a supportive technical team already in place for when mining begins.
Dewatering of Wallace North’s pit area is already well advanced, with all blast hole drilling expected to be in dry holes.
Leading TNC during this next phase of operations is newly appointed managing director Bevan Jones, who commenced his role on June 10.
“We have commenced mining operations at Wallace North, which will allow our CCP to restart copper production,” Jones said.
“This has been our major goal since listing on the ASX (in June 2023). I thank our team for their efforts in moving towards this goal to allow TNC to become Australia’s next copper and critical metals producer.”
The mining ramp-up at Wallace North will initially build ore stockpiles, with road haulage expected to start within a few weeks of start-up.
Oxide ore will be transported by road train to True North’s Cloncurry heap leach. Sulphide ore will then be transferred to a nearby concentrator for toll treatment under True North’s toll-milling agreement with Glencore.
“CCP is estimated to deliver free cash flow of about $200 million at current prices over its 4.6-year initial mine life, based on existing JORC reserves,” Jones said.
“Cash flow from mining will be used to explore further opportunities to build this inventory.”
Wallace North is one of four open-pit deposits that makes up Cloncurry. The deposit currently holds an ore reserve totalling 0.7 million tonnes (probable) grading 1.01 per cent copper and 0.46 grams per tonne gold for 6800 tonnes of copper and 10,000 ounces of gold.