Cudeco copper for China

GOLD Coast-based minerals explorer CuDeco is close to signing a deal to supply vast copper quantities to a manufacturing plant in China.

The Top 300 ASX-listed company is also looking at a potential listing on the HKEx as it moves to ‘value add’ in China. CuDeco will supply up to 50 per cent of the company’s copper, to produce small gauge products including copper tubes and wiring.

“In our business, China is trying to control the world’s markets for metals, but you can’t get copper over there. This manufacturing plant will value add for CuDeco in the region,” says CuDeco chairman Wayne McRae.

CuDeco’s signature site is the Rocklands Group copper project near Cloncurry in northwest Queensland. The Rocklands project is located in the biggest known copper belt of Australia and is host to the giant Mt Isa copper mine and the Ernest Henry copper mine.

McRae says the company has completed more than 160,000m of RC and diamond core drilling in more than 1000 holes and 2000 bedrock drill holes.

“The Rocklands Group copper project is one of the largest single exploration programs in Australia and is in the top three exploration programs ever in Australia for the past decades to have completed such a large drilling and exploration program in such a short period,” he says.

The company has achieved the milestone in less than three years of exploration with at an estimated cost of $50 million. McRae says the Rocklands Group copper project is one of the richest copper mines in the world.