australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005
Cloncurry (Qld): Exco Resources NL released an initial resource estimate for the Great Australia
deposit at its Cloncurry copper project. Indicated and inferred resources to a depth of 150 m total
2.13 Mt @ 1.54% Cu and 0.13 g/t Au. At the Monakoff deposit, also part of the Cloncurry project,
the company reported an indicated and inferred resource of 1.9 Mt @ 1.58% Cu and 0.48 g/t Au.
E1 East (Qld): 8 km east of the Ernest Henry mine northeast of Cloncurry, Exco Resources NL
reported drill intersections including 72 m @ 1.25% Cu and 0.4 g/t Au, 42 m @ 1.75% Cu and
0.59 g/t Au and 108 m @ 0.68% Cu and 0.2 g/t Au.
Kanmantoo (SA): At the old Kanmantoo copper mine, Hillgrove Resources Ltd, announced an
inferred resource based on evaluation of old drill holes of 8.4 Mt @ 1.2% Cu. Some 500 m south
of Kanmantoo, the company previously reported drilling had defined two broad zones of copper
mineralisation which included an intersection of 27 m @ 3.94% Cu.
Production
In 2004, Australia’s mine production of copper was 860 kt of contained copper, 4% higher than
in 2003 (829 kt). Queensland continued to dominate production with 399 kt (largely from Mt Isa),
which is 8% less than in 2003, and accounts for 48% of Australian production, down from 53%
in 2003. South Australia remained the second largest producer with 225 kt (up 40% and all from
Olympic Dam), representing 27% of Australia’s production. Other production was: New South Wales
(166 kt, up 8%), Western Australia (38 kt, down 22%), and Tasmania (32 kt, up 7%).
The value of Australia’s exports of copper concentrates and refined copper totalled $2.57 billion,
27% more than in 2003 ($2.02 billion) and 1.7% of the value of total merchandise exports. The increase
reflects higher copper prices in 2004 with the average up by 43% to $3 915/t compared to the average
of $2 735/t in 2003. Although copper production was 4% higher in 2004, the tonnage of exports was
7% lower at 654 kt. ABARE forecast that mine output of copper will reach 1.08 Mt in 2008–09.
World Ranking
Based on USGS data for other countries, Australia has the second largest EDR of copper (9%) after
Chile (36%) and ahead of USA and Indonesia (both 7%) and Peru, Poland and Mexico (all 6%).
As a producer, Australia ranks fourth in the world with 6% after Chile (35%), USA (8%) and Peru
(7%), with Indonesia also at 6%.
Industry Developments
Mt Isa (Qld): Xstrata Plc plans to expand its Mt Isa copper smelter capacity from 240 000 tpa to
280 000 tpa by mid 2006 million through the installation of a second rotary holding furnace, a copper
slag cleaning furnace and a converter slag treatment plant. At Mt Isa’s Enterprise copper mine
a $36 million development of the Northern 3 500 underground copper orebody has commenced.
The project will provide an additional high-grade mining zone in Enterprise, enabling the mine to
maintain its rated capacity of 3.5 Mtpa. Current plans indicate that the mining block will contribute
a supplementary 5.3 Mt of copper ore at a grade of 4.5% (240 000 t of contained copper metal) over
the next 11 years, with initial production scheduled to commence in late 2006.
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Olympic Dam (SA): In May 2004, WMC Resources Ltd. began a $48 million pre-feasibility study
into options to further expand production and develop a preferred life-of-mine plan. As part of the
study, over 70 km of drilling in 90 holes from surface identified significant additional mineralisation
in the south-eastern region of the deposit. As a consequence, the Olympic Dam mineral resource
(all categories) was upgraded in late 2004 to 3.81 billion tonnes @ 1.1% Cu, 0.4 kg/t U 3 O 8 and
0.5 g/t Au – an increase of over 29%. Total copper in the resource increased by 7 Mt to an estimated
42.7 Mt. Options being investigated from the increase in resources include increasing annual copper
production at Olympic Dam to 500 000 tonnes.
Prominent Hill (SA): Oxiana Ltd acquired full control in 2004 of the Prominent Hill copper-gold project.