Zinc

[Lone Clone]

Cobwebs now off second Broken Hill lead/zinc/silver mine

http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page36?oid=21612&sn=Detail

The revival of the Broken Hill mining camp continues with CBH Resources working high grade ore from the old mining area’s Central Mining Lease.
Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Thursday , 31 May 2007

PERTH -

CBH Resources Ltd (ASX: CBH) which holds the central mining lease on Broken Hill's famous Line of Lode has started trucking ore to its mine plant near Cobar in New South Wales to get an early cash flow from a decline mining operation now under development.

This gives the world famous lead-zinc-silver mining city a second lease of life after the future of mining on this world class deposit was in serious doubt five years ago with the collapse of the Pasminco mining house.

This was also in a period when the zinc price was flat, and both lead and silver were nowhere near today's solid prices.

Perth company Perilya Ltd took over the barely operating Pasminco mines and is now one of the emerging, cashed up mining houses looking to acquire new assets and companies.

CBH, which missed out on securing the whole Line of Lode, after gaining Central Mining Lease 7 (CML7) earlier from Normandy Mining, had the consolation of buying the Elura mine near Cobar from Pasminco's administrators and sharpened this unloved operation into a smarter operation. Like Perilya's Broken Hill operations, Elura (renamed Endeavour) is now providing CBH with a big cash flow thanks mainly to the record zinc price.

Part of the profits have been directed towards reopening CML7 where a substantial zinc-rich lode was discovered in the upper reaches of well mined areas by companies up to a century ago, including BHP which began its life in this area. In the early mining days zinc was despised as it had no real value and provided a metallurgical obstacle to recovering lead and silver.

CBH Resources' managing director Bob Besley told Mineweb today that in starting the decline development for the new Rasp mine (named after Charles Rasp, the boundary rider who discovered the Broken Hill orebody) from within the Kintore pit, a large high grade outcrop was exposed and evaluation showed a significant amount of ore.

Approvals were gained to truck high grade ore to CBH's Endeavour mill near Cobar, about 450 kilometres away, and 6,000 tonnes is being prepared for trucking, and CBH said this ore was expected to grade more than 20% zinc plus lead and 200 grams/tonne silver. The high grade ore earmarked for trucking could total more than 15,000t.

Meanwhile, the Rasp decline is now about 200m long and will extend to about 1.2 kilometres to hit the top of the Western Mineralisation, starting at about 200m depth.

Long lead items including a ball mill for the Rasp mine treatment plant have been ordered and Besley said many enquiries for jobs have been received from miners who had left Broken Hill in the tough years and wanted to return home.

The mill will have a capacity of 750,000 tonnes per annum to produce 65,000 tonnes per annum zinc concentrate (50% Zn) and 35,000 tpa lead concentrate (70% Pb).

Besley said it was hoped to have stockpiled up to 100,000t for the new mill for the commissioning phase, currently set at August, 2008.

The company said today the backbone for the Rasp mine is a resource on the Western Mineralisation of 10 Mt grading 4.9% Zn, 3.5% Pb and 43 g/t Ag. There is a further 10 Mt present in the Centenary zone, a fault displaced depth extension of the Western Mineralisation.