- 01SAG mill arrives at Rocklands, easing restart risk.
- 02It replaces cone crushing.
- 03$15m QIC funding backs a 4.5-6Mtpa expansion study.
Austral Resources Australia (ASX: AR1) has reported that a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill acquired for the restart of its Rocklands project in northwest Queensland has arrived at site.
The 4.75-megawatt mill was purchased in June from the former Harmony Gold/Peak Gold Mine operations in New South Wales to replace Rocklands’ legacy three-stage cone crushing circuit.
Central to the plant’s redesigned front-end circuit, it is the largest single procurement risk item for the refurbishment program.
Transported 1,700 kilometres by road from Cobar to Rocklands’ Eastern Operations site near Cloncurry, acquiring the mill was the preferred alternative to procuring one from overseas, which would have had a higher cost and carried a longer lead time.
Front-End Re-Design
Earlier this year, Austral’s technical committee engaged Brisbane firm CMD Consulting to review and redesign the front-end comminution circuit at the Rocklands plant.
This resulted in a conventional processing pathway centred on replacing the existing three-stage cone crushing circuit with a single SAG mill configuration.
Austral believes the simplified approach could significantly reduce its operational risk, lower capital intensity, and align Rocklands with proven conventional copper concentrator designs used globally.
The SAG mill transaction removed one of the most significant schedule risks associated with concentrator restart projects, while simultaneously providing confidence in the company’s targeted commissioning timeline.
“The team has done a great job securing the approvals and managing the logistics to get the mill to site—we've made a significant investment to purchase this equipment and bring it to Rocklands, and we're keen to get it installed, get it spinning, and our feedstock ready as we bring Rocklands back into production,” chair David Newling said.
Stage 2 Expansion Study
Austral secured a $15 million investment from the QIC Queensland Critical Minerals Fund in August to fund Stage 2 expansion planning and alternative power studies at Rocklands.
The non-dilutive royalty financing will initially support a scoping study to examine an increase in processing capacity to between 4.5 million tonnes per annum and 6Mtpa including associated infrastructure options.
Rocklands’ current 3Mtpa capacity is expected to be fully utilised by Austral’s sulphide ore production through to at least 2034, sourced from the Western and Eastern Operations and utilising the company’s existing mineral resource estimates that were recently re-optimised to align with a strengthening copper price.
The expansion study will assess options to increase throughput, improve operating efficiencies, and consider how additional capacity could support Austral’s future production profile and broader regional opportunities including the potential for third-party toll treatments.
Austral expects to appoint a contractor before year end to manage the front-end modifications.
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