PERTH (miningweekly.com) – First copper from the Whundo copper mine, in Western Australia, is expected by next week, ASX-listed Artemis Resources said on Thursday.
The Whundo mine is one of the Fox Radio Hill assets being bought by Artemis from Fox Resources, in exchange for A$2-million in cash and the issue of 20-million Artemis shares.
Artemis has also signed a copper supply deal with Blackrock Metals, the operators of the Whim Creek copper heap leach and solvent extraction and electrowinning recovery operations, to supply an initial 50 000 t of copper oxide, at 1.5% copper.
The ore will be supplied from the mine’s stockpiles and trucked around 160 km to the Whim Creek operation, with first deliveries expected to start in early April.
Any revenue received by Fox Resources for the ore will be deducted from the A$2-million cash payment owed by Artemis under the acquisition agreement.
“Artemis is not only planning to commence gold production from Nickol River next week, but this deal also gets us into profitable copper production very quickly,” said Artemis chairperson David Lenigas, adding that there was scope to expand the deal with Blackrock in the coming months.
Further, Lenigas told shareholders that, based on the drilling intercepts at Whundo, Artemis was also planning to quickly start drilling with a view of reopening the mine this year, as a copper-oxide producer.
A programme of works has been submitted to the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum, and drilling will start immediately once the company has been given approval.