Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King has indicated the Australian Government is supportive of the potential reopening of Tasmania’s Mount Lyell copper mine, which has been on care and maintenance since 2014.
King recently met with mine owner Sibanye-Stillwater and was advised that the company has completed its feasibility study into restarting operations.
“There will be a board decision on this this year and I’m hoping that’s sooner rather than later, as I imagine the good people of Tasmania and Burnie and everywhere around would agree,” King said in an interview with ABC Radio.
King said several factors are working in favour of a restart.
“The underground is now in very good shape, a lot of work has been carried out; copper and gold prices are very positive, there’s a strong market and it’s an excellent deposit,” she said.
“The local office of Sibanye-Stillwater is doing a lot of work to ensure the Mount Lyell mine has the potential to reopen.”
Located near Queenstown on Tasmania’s west coast, Mount Lyell began production in 1894 and operated as an underground copper mine with gold by-products.
The operation was placed on care and maintenance in 2014 by the previous owner, Copper Mines of Tasmania, following a series of accidents that resulted in three fatalities.
According to the company, Mount Lyell hosts a 79.4-million-tonne mineral resource containing 1.609 billion pounds of copper and 500,000 ounces of gold across underground and open pit deposits.
All leases are held by Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sibanye-Stillwater, and include established infrastructure and underground development that underpin the project’s brownfield restart potential.
Sibanye-Stillwater chief executive officer Neal Froneman has previously said Mount Lyell could provide the company with relatively low-cost copper exposure, complementing its existing lithium and nickel portfolio.
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