New Century Resources reports record financial performance for December quarter
New Century Resources official reopened the Century Zinc Mine on Friday the 14th of September.
Tailings and mine rehabilitation specialist New Century Resources (ASX: NCZ) has, in its latest quarterly report, outlined what it terms strong operational and financial performances.
In the three months to 31 December, the company achieved its highest quarterly recovery with a tailings rate of 50.7%.
Also, New Century delivered its largest ever shipment, more than 31,000 wet metric tonnes of zinc concentrate.
Results exclude $18.7m zinc shipment at New Year
This resulted in a EBITDA result for the three months of $40.4 million (a quarterly record), and operational cashflow of $7.4 million, a figure which excludes $18.7 million of zinc concentrate shipped on 5 January.
New Century’s flagship operation is the Century project in Queensland, the largest tailings reprocessing operation in Australia.
Century has been producing 130,000t per annum of zinc concentrate, with the company having restarted operations there in 2018 focusing on the re-processing of tailing and rehabilitation of existing disturbed areas.
In the December quarter, zinc output totalled 30,300t.
In December, New Century entered a two-year option to study the acquisition of the mothballed Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania.
Located near Queenstown on the island state’s west coast, Mt Lyell was first mined in 1893 by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company but closed in 2014 after the death of three workers in two separate mining accidents.
Over its lifetime, Mt Lyell has ranked as one of the most significant copper mines in Australian history.
Tasmanian acquisition will bolster ESG credentials
New Century says the mine has a 135Mt mineral resource containing 1Mt of copper and 940,000oz of gold.
Mt Lyell is currently owned by Mumbai-based Vedanta, a resources giant that produces iron ore, gold, aluminium, zinc-lead, and oil and gas.
Under the option agreement, New Century is to spend US$10 million (A$14 million) over the two-year period as well as reimbursing care and maintenance costs.
In its quarterly report, New Century said the Mt Lyell study is now under way and describes the proposed acquisition as a “transformational ESG-focused growth transaction”.
Managing director Patrick Walta said Mt Lyell has already shown its potential through initial feasibility work.
“Mt Lyell represents a unique near-term opportunity to supply green copper into an increasingly tight market,” he added.