New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ) has begun transporting zinc concentrate along a recently developed slurry pipeline to its port facility in Karumba, Queensland.

According to the company, the startup of the slurry pipeline represents “another important milestone.” The zinc concentrate produced at the company’s Century mine is now going through its first round of logistics for export.

With this progress, the company anticipates seeing first revenue from concentrate sales later this month, and remains on track to make its first concentrate shipment in Q4 2018.

The projected annual export volume out of the Karumba port is 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes over an estimated six-and-a-half-year mine life.

The Century mine began open-pit production in 1999, complete with a processing plant, supporting infrastructure and a 304-kilometer pipeline to the Karumba port. But processing operations were terminated by former owner MMG (HKEX:1208) in early 2016 due to depleted ore reserves.

New Century, then named Attila Resources, began the acquisition of Century in March 2017.

The company’s aim was to focus on the remaining mineral assets at the mine, which included over 2.2 million tonnes of zinc metal equivalent resources in mineralized tailings, and over 1 million tonnes of zinc and lead resources in the Silver King, South Block and East Fault Block base metals deposits.

Following the acquisition, New Century began upgrading the site’s infrastructure, starting with reprocessing the tailings. This past July, the company finished commissioning the slurry concentrate pipeline, allowing first production to take place in August.

New Century says the current work plan for Century will take the mine site, pipeline and port facility to full closure through to 2050.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.