AERIS Resources’ Tritton Copper Operations has gone from strength to strength, with FY19 exceeding production guidance and an aggressive exploration program that continues to yield exciting results.
The Tritton Copper Operation comprises the Tritton underground mine and the Murrawombie underground mine and the prospective Budgerygar project in NSW.
Aeris executive chair Andrew Labuschagne said that the success at Tritton had continued to exceed expectations in terms of both grade and tonne.
“Despite the impact of the weakening currency over the past 12 months on our US dollar treatment and refining charges and sea-freight costs, we maintained C1 cash costs within the lower end of the guidance range provided in July 2018,” he said.
Tritton underground
Production from the Tritton underground mine exceeded the 24,500t production guidance for FY18, producing 26,852t of copper at a cash cost of 2.78/lb.
The company said that its revised stope extraction sequence improved the ore quality, and that the stope design and orientation of the extraction sequence was changed to accommodate the “evolving ore body geometry and the increasing ground stress associated with the revised stoping design delivering stable stope production in 2019”.
As Tritton went deeper, the company upgraded the loading and hauling efficiencies at the lower levels of the mine.
This included upgrading the tele-remote loader system and the establishment of a truck loading loop for haul trucks
The company said that these initiatives demonstrated reductions in truck loading “between a half and two thirds, compares to the conventional loading methodology”, despite the deeper operations.
Significant improvements to the communications and data backbone were made at Tritton, and the company installed the infrastructure necessary for camera set-ups that will allow for the remote loading of trucks in the loading loop from the surface control room.
The company said that this would also allow for the remote monitoring of selected paste fill infrastructure, meaning it could identify issues faster, and free up underground labour for other activities.
Murrawombie underground
At the secondary production source of the Tritton Copper Operation, commercial production rates at Murrawombie were achieved in 2018, and production increased in 2019.
A detailed stope design that was undertaken in FY19 greatly improved the geological understanding of the mineralisation and the resultant selective mining greatly improved copper grades.
The company said it had continued its grade control diamond drilling and geology mapping, and the ore drives continue to improve the detailed understanding of the deposit’s geology.
“Revisions of the resource model using this additional information have occurred during the year, allowing selective mining on the higher grade mineralisation,” it said.
“Toward the end of the financial year grade control drilling identified mineralisation to the north and below the current Mineral Resource envelope.”
Exploration
The entire Tritton package covers about 2100sqkm.
To date, more than 750,000t of copper has been discovered, including the Tritton and Murrawombie deposits, both greater than 10mt.
At the Budgerygar deposit, 600m north east of the Tritton mine, the company continued to develop the access drive that is being mined from the Tritton decline 270m below the surface.
This, it said, will allow access for diamond drilling and eventually access once production begins.
Looking forward to 2020, company is progressing toward a full feasibility study for the potential to establish the Budgerygar as a satellite to the Tritton mine.
