First Hellyer Silver-Lead-Gold Shipment Docks in Korea

The first shipment of silver-lead–gold concentrate from Hellyer Gold Mines has been successfully delivered to Korea, marking the beginning of a 10-year offtake deal for 36,000 tonnes per year.

The material left the Tasmania’s Burnie port on February 9 after the commissioning of the Hellyer tailings reprocessing facility, and was sent to Korea Zinc (KRX:010130) to be processed at its zinc smelters.

“The first product shipment proves the technical and commercial viability of the Hellyer reprocessing project. Reprocessing the tailings resource also offers substantial environmental benefits as well,” Hellyer Gold Mines Director Steve White said in a statement.

“The company is committed to using modern processing technology to extract value from legacy tailings at the same time as restoring the mine footprint and repairing any existing environmental damage. The twin goals of generating shareholder and environmental value are being met with the Hellyer project.”

The Hellyer asset is a historic underground mine that began production in 1989 and went on to produce 15 million tonnes of ore during its 11 years of operation. This included 601,000 tonnes of bulk concentrate, 2.7 million tonnes of zinc concentrate and 728,000 tonnes of lead concentrate.

However, the mine called a wrap on operations in 2000, when the site had exhausted its supply of economically available ore. In 2017, NQ Minerals (OTCQB:NQMLF,NEX:NQMI) acquired Keen Pacific and its subsidiaries Ivy Resources and Hellyer Gold Mines, in turn acquiring the once-bustling mine.

“We must also stress just how welcoming the Tasmanian community has been while we were developing the project, the prospect of generating value from an unused legacy resource to rehabilitate the old mine site has really captured everyone’s imagination,” White added.

“The boards of NQ Minerals and Hellyer Gold Mines are delighted at just how healthy the business environment for mining and processing investment is in Tasmania.”

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