Century

A case study in economic rehabilitation

USD2.5 billion in recoverable metal value:

  • 78.9 million tonnes @ 3.02% zinc and 12.4g/t silver
  • 2,380,000t contained zinc & 31,500,000oz contained silver

Assets:

  • Mine, plant, infrastructure, 783km2 of tenements
  • 304km underground slurry pipeline
  • 1 million tonne per annum Port Facility (Karumba) and 5,000 tonne transshipment vessel

History:

  • Operated 1999 to 2015, producing c.a. 1 million tonnes per year of zinc concentrate as the 3rd largest zinc mine in the world
  • New Century Resources acquired company in 2017 for $0 plus A$46.6m in contributions from MMG (vendor)
  • Sibanye Stillwater acquired New Century Resources in 2023

Economic Rehabilitation:

  • Restarted in 2018 after 8-month refurbishment
  • Process: 10Mtpa hydraulic mining of tailings, followed by flotation, producing ~270ktpa zinc conc
  • Processed tailings returned to original pit, rehabilitated via subaqueous deposition, with reprocessing to be completed by 2027
  • 35 million tonnes of tailings reprocessed and rehabilitated (as of Dec 2022)
  • 1.0 million tonnes of zinc concentrate produced and sold
  • USD135 million in operational cash flow (as of Dec 2022) since commercial production (June 2020)
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