JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australian company Pybar Mining Services has been selected as the contractor for the Carrapateena decline project, in South Australia, in a $65-million tender that has attracted significant interest from international and domestic companies.
Announcing Pybar as the winner of the “hotly contested contract” to build the 600-m-deep, 7 500-m-long decline, Oz Minerals MD and CEO Andrew Cole said on Tuesday that Carrapateena had “compelling economics”.
“By starting the decline now, we are further de-risking the project . . . Building the decline now creates approximately A$90-million in net present value (NPV),” he said in a statement.
The combined Carrapateena project and proposed concentrate treatment plant has a NPV of about A$900-million, an internal rate of return of 24% and will deliver about $4.8-billion in life-of-mine net cash flow before tax.
“Pybar has an excellent reputation in the underground mining industry in terms of safety, quality and execution and they will be a great partner as we build the Carrapateena project,” Cole said.
Pybar will mobilise to site over the next two weeks and expects the first firing for the decline to take place in late September.
The Carrapateena project will require capital expenditure of about $975-million, including $100-million in contingency, and will produce 67 000 t/y of copper and 76 000 oz/y of gold for the first three years of production, after which production will decrease to 53 000 t/y of copper and 53 000 oz/y of gold for the remainder of the life-of-mine.