MMG to Decide on Dugald River Development Plans by September

Reuters reported that MMG Ltd. (HKEX:1208) will decide by September how to develop its Dugald River zinc project. The plan is for Dugald River to replace output from the company’s Century mine, which is set to close this year, but development was put on hold in 2013 when the ore body was revealed to be more complicated than expected.

As quoted in the market news:

MMG, the Hong Kong-listed, Melbourne-based arm of China’s state-owned Minmetals Corp, said on Thursday the revised development plan was likely to include lower annual output over a longer mine life.

The original A$1.49 billion ($1.15 billion) project approved in 2012 had envisioned producing 200,000-220,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate a year, with a mine life of more than 20 years, starting in late 2015.

CEO Andrew Michelmore commented:

We are continuing to review all available options with our objective of maximising long-term shareholder value. We expect to make a decision regarding the revised project during the third quarter of this year.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.