New silver mine could employ 80 locals
Wednesday Decenber 9, 2009
A proposed new silver mine south of Cobar, which could create up to 80 new jobs, is looking “very positive”.
Cobar Consolidated Resources company secretary Trevor Shard visited Cobar last week and spoke to The Cobar Weekly about the company’s future.
He said a feasibility study currently
underway on the company’s Wonawinta
site has already found that “the economics look positive”, and the company is aiming
for an operation to be up and running within approximately two years.
He said the proposed silver mine would be “new and different” to Cobar residents and on a much smaller scale than the currently operating mines in the area.
“We would look at mining over a series of open pits.
“Initially we looked at using excavators and trucks but we are now looking at scrapers to remove to the waste, in a method that has been seen in a mineral sands project at Horsham in Victoria,” Mr Shard said.
He said the silver product would then be processed on site, similar to the way gold is processed at Peak Gold Mines.
Mr Shard said the company is hoping to complete its feasibility study by mid next year and begin fund raising activities in the second quarter of next year.
The project also needs to satisfy government approvals.
“Because it’s a smaller project we are hoping it will go through a regional approval process.
“We really can’t speculate on how long that might take,” Mr Shard said.
The new mine would provide a major boost for Cobar, with a
currently estimated mine life of more than five years.
“There’s an old saying that one job in a mine can create up to three more in town,” Mr Shard said.
He said while the feasibility study is currently concentrating on Wonawinta, the company’s other tenements are also showing positive drilling results and could improve any future mining operation in the area.
“We want to see the project get going to get some cash flow, and then we will continue to investigate other projects,” Mr Shard said.
“It just means we will have to be clever about where we put the pits.”
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