Resource Renewal of Weinu Copper Mine in Western Australia

Although Rio Tinto has rarely disclosed information about the Weinu (Winu) copper mine recently, the company said recently that work on the project was continuing.

The Weinu Copper Mine, located in Patterson, Western Australia, was discovered in early 2018. It was first reported in mid-2020 that the ore resource was 503 million tons, with a copper grade of 0.35%, a gold grade of 0.55 g / ton, or a copper equivalent grade of 0.45%.

Rio Tinto originally planned to start production at the Weinu mine in 2023, but it was delayed twice last year, first to 2024 and then to 2025, mainly due to the Covid-19 epidemic and indigenous intervention.

The final investment decision was postponed from 2021 to 2022.

Recently, Rio Tinto upgraded the resources of the Weinu Copper Mine, forming a presumptive resource for the first time.

According to the 0.2% copper equivalent boundary grade, the current ore resource of the project is 608 million tons, the copper equivalent grade is 0.49%, and contains 2.5 million tons of copper.

Compared with the last time, the amount of ore increased by 21%, the grade of copper increased by 16%, the grade of gold increased by 12%, the amount of copper metal increased by 40%, and the amount of gold resources increased by 35%.

Among them, the presumed ore resource is 249 million tons and the copper equivalent grade is 0.55%.

The resources include orebodies with high grade and shallow burial, and detailed geological and geological engineering evaluation, mine design and processing research will be carried out to prepare for open pit design.

The ore resource of the open pit is 153 million tons, and the copper equivalent grade is 0.76%.

The Weinu copper deposit still has prospecting potential in the deep, north, south and east.

"although exploration activities are to some extent affected by surface barrier clearance, the characteristics of copper, gold and silver mineralization and the surrounding geological background indicate that, at least for now, there is still some prospecting potential," the company said.

Last year, the project was transferred from the exploration team to the copper sector to push it into the research phase.

"the technical and commercial assessments recently completed by independent institutions are positive, and the project continues to have the support of Rio's board of directors, which has agreed to increase investment to advance the early development of the Weinu copper mine in preparation for a final investment decision," Rio Tinto said.

Rio Tinto has not yet announced the scale of production at the Weinu copper mine.

"the preliminary project assessment shows that the Weinu Copper Mine can produce 70, 000 tons of copper per year, but it is not a large-scale mine for Rio Tinto," said (RBC Capital Markets), the Royal Capital Market of Canada.

However, Rio Tinto believes that the region has greater potential and has joint ventures with Antipas Resources company (Antipa Resources), Callavien Resources company (Carawine Resources), Spa Resources company (Sipa Resources) and Aloy Resources company (Alloy Resources), with a total mining area of 10, 000 square kilometers.

"I think through the development of the Weinu Mine, we can expand the potential around it," said Peter Cunningham (Peter Cunningham), chief financial officer of Rio Tinto. And we have been very focused on trying to find deposits with the same potential as Venu.

Project studies, applications for permits and consultations with indigenous peoples continued.

"We understand that we are going in the right direction," said Shi Daocheng (Jakob Stausholm), the company's chief executive.