Zinifex to Process Que River Zinc Ore at Rosebery


Zinifex’s Rosebery mine, located on Tasmania’s North West Coast,
produces approximately 700,000 mt/y of zinc-lead-copper ore. It will
soon begin processing additional ore shipped from Bass Metals’
Que River base metal project.
Zinc and lead producer Zinifex, based in Melbourne, Australia, said it has taken steps to improve utilization of its mill and concentrator at its Rosebery mine by entering into an ore sales agreement with Bass Metals to purchase ore from the first stage of the Que River base metal project. The agreement allows Zinifex to purchase 120,000 mt of ore from Bass Metals over approximately two years at an average of 8.3% zinc metal content. There is a further option to extend this agreement subject to the approval of both parties. Zinifex COO Brett Fletcher explained that recent changes to the concentrator have improved its operation and efficiency to the point where its throughput now exceeds the capacity of the mine. “With improved operations in the mill we are now in a position to process a greater amount of ore so we approached Bass Metals earlier this year to explore sourcing product from their Que River site some 30 km from Rosebery. The agreement enables us to potentially put additional material through the mill and, as a result, get better asset utilization at the mine,” he said. A trial shipment of approximately 1,000 mt was undertaken this summer to test the suitability of the ore. This trial was successfully completed and Bass Metals was expected to begin delivery of the contracted tonnage as soon as practicable. Zinifex said that under the agreement, it is expected that Bass Metals will deliver more than to 115,000 mt of Que River ore over a two-year period at approximately 7,000 mt per month. This will bring the total tonnage processed at the mine to over 800,000 a year.