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True North Copper Limited (ASX:TNC) (True North, TNC or the Company) is pleased to provide an operational update on the mining restart at its 100% owned Cloncurry Copper Project (CCP).
HIGHLIGHTS
- TNC will commence mining ore at Wallace North in early Q4 FY24 (see Figure 2).
- Mining preparation at Wallace North progressed in March 2024 (as access and mine areas dried after monsoonal rainfall events in February and early March) including the following:
- Mobilisation of mining equipment and support infrastructure to the Wallace North project site (see Figures 4 & 5).
- Preparation of existing access and haulage roads for upcoming mining activities (see Figure 3).
- Completion of short-term mine scheduling by technical service teams.
- Onboarding of skilled mining fleet operators.
- The mining ramp-up will initially build ore stockpiles, with haulage expected to start in mid-May 2024. Oxide ore will be transported by road train to the Cloncurry Operations Hub's heap leach. Sulphide ore will be transported to a nearby concentrator for toll treatment under TNC's toll-milling agreement with Glencore International AG1 (Glencore).
- The CCP currently incorporates the Great Australia Mine Reserve3 (includes Great Australia Mine [GAM], Taipan and Orphan Shear deposits) and the Wallace North Reserve4 totalling 4.7Mt grading 0.80% Cu and 0.13g/t Au containing 37.5kt of copper and 20.0koz of gold (see Figure 1) at a strip ratio of 4.22.
- The CCP restart plan confirms positive project economics including mine revenue of A$367M with free cash flow of A$111M, and a pre-tax NPV10 of A$88M over a 4.6 year mine life, at USD$8,500/t Cu price and USD$1,850/oz Au price (0.7 A$:USD exchange rate)2.
COMMENT
True North Copper’s Managing Director, Marty Costello said:
“This is an exciting and transformative phase for TNC. Thanks to the hard work of our Mining Operations Team we are prepared and ready to deliver on our Cloncurry Copper Project Mining Restart Plan with mining commencing at Wallace North in early Q4 FY24.
CCP project economics confirm a robust mining operation that is low risk and low-cost. Projected mine revenue is A$367M with a free cash flow of A$111M.
Our plans to develop Mt Oxide into our next mine continue as we finalise the Vero mineral resource re-estimation and optimisation study.”
Figure 1. TNC's Cloncurry Copper Project (including current reserves) *see References 3 & 4.
Figure 2. Wallace North copper reserve and pit crest. The Wallace South Gold resource is included for reference.
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