Mining

Cyprium Metals clears deck for return to Nifty production on back of increased copper resource

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By Robin Bromby - 
Cyprium Metals ASX CYM copper Nifty June 2022

Cyprium 在其三个项目中拥有 1.6 公吨的铜资源。

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Cyprium Metals (ASX: CYM) has concluded a busy June quarter at its three projects, led by the revival of the historic Nifty mine after the company boosted the resource to 940,200 tonnes of contained copper.

In all, the company now has 1.6 million tonnes of contained copper across those three projects.

In its latest quarterly report, Cyprium says the government submissions have been lodged for Nifty and approvals are being completed.

The financing process is “well advanced” and Nifty is expected to be in production in the second half of 2023. 

Due diligence under way with Glencore on offtake deal  

The Nifty copper mine is located on the western end of the Great Sandy Desert in the northeast Pilbara region — about 350km from Port Hedland.

The deposit was discovered in 1981 by the former WMC, with drilling in 1983 of the oxide resource leading to the discovery of the deeper sulphide body.

Since then three other companies have owned Nifty, the most recent being Metals X (ASX: MLX).

Managing director Barry Cahill says good progress continues to be made at Nifty with refurbishment and operational readiness activities, along with metallurgical test work.

“We remain focused on finalising the restart of the Nifty copper project, to establish Cyprium as copper producer in the shortest time frame possible,” he added.

The company has signed a letter of intent with global commodity giant Glencore, and work continues on due diligence for that proposed deal as well as with senior debt providers.

Copper margins still healthy

Cyprium’s restart study was based on a copper price of US$4.50 per pound, with a direct cash cost of US$1.91/lb and a fully allocated cost of US$2.82/lb. 

Even with the recent fall of the copper price, Thursday’s close at US3.52/lb still leaves a comfortable margin.

With the next recovery in metals markets, copper can be expected to rebound strongly, the price underpinned by looming shortages of the metal as demand surges on the back of global electrification plans and China’s post-Covid bounce-back. 

Other copper projects in pipeline

Apart from Nifty, Cyprium owns 100% of the Maroochydore copper project which has a resource of 48.8Mt at 1% copper, for a contained 486,000t of metal.

That resource will be updated later this year, the company says in its quarterly report. 

There is also the Murchison copper project which includes the Hollandaire resource of 2Mt at 1.9% copper, with a contained 51,500t along with 28,000oz of gold and 500,000oz of silver.

This project also includes the Nanadie Well deposit with 162,000t of contained copper.

Cyprium is now considering plans for extending the resource at Murchison.