CUDECO GETS GREEN LIGHT FOR COPPER PROJECT

CONSTRUCTION will start immediately at CuDeco’s copper mine in north-west Queensland after the State Government approved an operational plan for the Rocklands site.

The Gold Coast mining company announced the approval of the Rocklands Group Copper Project plan by the Department of Environment and Resource Management to the Australian Securities Exchange today.

Chairman Wayne McCrae says the go-ahead is the culmination of six years’ work and more than $75 million in expenditure at the site, located 15km west of Cloncurry and 100km east of Mt Isa.

CuDeco was granted a 30-year mining lease at the site late last year. The approval of the plan of operation is the final regulatory requirement to enable the development of the Rocklands Group Copper Project to commence.

“Construction begins immediately, with [material for] the first of the buildings expecting to arrive in the next week,” says McCrae.

“Fencing of the entire lease has been completed ensuring the security of our equipment already on site.”

The three million tonne per annum process plant is expected to produce approximately 480,000 tonnes of copper/gold, pyrite/cobalt and magnetite concentrates per year.

That output could increase, McCrae says.

“The plant has been designed so that the throughput can be increased to 5.5mtpa (million tonnes per annum) and the company will, over the next two years, undertake further financial, technical and environmental studies, which together with seeking the required regulatory approval, may result in an increase in the project’s throughput,” says McCrae.

CuDeco shares recorded a slight rise in early trading this morning.