GreenTech Metals has taken the first steps towards forming a copper alliance with its neighbour Anax Metals in Western Australia’s Pilbara region after the duo signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at establishing a new processing hub.
The pair will now move to assess the potential to treat base metals from GreenTech’s Whundo project at Anax’s proposed Whim Creek processing facility. The news comes just a week after GreenTech revealed that an exhaustive review at Whundo – which is just 40km south of the WA mining hub of Karratha – confirmed its belief that it had a “significant exploration opportunity” at the project, with world copper prices remaining close to all-time highs.
The 5.3 million tonne resource at Whundo includes an indicated 4.4 million tonnes at 1.03 per cent copper and 0.89 per cent zinc, containing 45,000 tonnes of copper and 39,000 tonnes of zinc.
While the MOU remains non-binding and non-exclusive, the agreement envisages each party contributing resources and information to a joint assessment to focus on technical studies and regulatory approvals at Whundo. It will help the parties develop terms for a legally-binding agreement related to processing GreenTech’s ores at Whim Creek.
The discussions will centre on various options relating to transactions, processing, revenue distribution and other elements of mutual participation. GreenTech says that while the negotiations are continuing, it plans to continue aggressively working on its under-explored Austin, Shelby and Yannery prospects where recent drilling intersected significant copper mineralisation.
GreenTech Metals managing director Tom Reddicliffe said: “This is a great opportunity for GreenTech that could see a formalised Alliance with Anax taking significant steps towards establishing near-term mining operations at our Whundo Project. The Alliance could be the catalyst that the West Pilbara needs to become a significant copper producer.”
Reddicliffe said the company had already defined open-pittable copper and zinc resources and the potential to define additional near-surface tonnage at both its Yannery and Ayshia deposits.
While GreenTech has recently been focused on exploring and drilling its string of spodumene (lithium-bearing) pegmatites in its nearby Ruth Well project and the Osborne joint venture it shares with Artemis Resources, it has not been letting the grass grow under its feet at Whundo. Its recent project review, with the assistance of independent consultants, highlighted four significant volcanogenic massive sulphide copper-zinc targets within a 2.2km long zone, with possible additional potential in other geophysical targets.
Only two deposits, Whundo and Ayshia, currently contribute to the company’s 2012 JORC-compliant indicated and inferred mineral resource at the project. The combined total resource for the two deposits amounts to 6.2 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper and 1.04 per cent zinc.
And the study highlighted considerable upside potential beyond the two deposits, interpreted primarily from fixed-loop electromagnetic (FLEM) geophysics.
The proposed Whim Creek project – to be owned 80 per cent by Anax and 20 per cent by Develop Global – is planned to consist of a new 400,000 tonnes per annum concentrator and a refurbished heap leach facility capable of treating oxide, transitional and supergene ores. The company says the strategy is “supported by robust project economics”.
Anax believes its Whim Creek processing hub could become a significant WA copper producer. Whim Creek has a resource estimate of 11 million tonnes at a grade of 1.1 per cent copper and 1.7 per cent zinc.
It suggests that an amalgamation of the existing resources of the two companies could result in a project resource base of 17.2 million tonnes of measured, indicated and inferred resources containing more than 185,000 tonnes of copper and 256,000 tonnes of zinc.
Anax managing director Geoff Laing said the company was pleased to take the first steps towards creating an expanded Pilbara copper business with its neighbours and looked forward to delivering scalable assets with near-term “energy metals” production.
The most obvious advantage for GreenTech is that the alliance would give it access to the already fully-permitted Whim Creek processing plant, which would provide a near-term processing option for its open-pittable Whundo deposit and cashflow from the project. It would also potentially give it the confidence to commit further to exploration and development of the entire Whundo project, including the new targets along the Whundo-Ayshia line of strike – and any others yet to be defined.
Both outcomes would mean that the company would have justified every original objective of its exhaustive Whundo review.
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By Doug Bright
