R3D Resources reports strong progress of copper sulphate plant restart

Copper and zinc explorer R3D Resources (ASX: R3D) is making headway on the refurbishment and restart of its copper sulphate plant at the Tartana project in Far North Queensland.

The company has updated the market with a list of completed works including the finalisation of detailed flow sheets, component listings and electrical drawings to facilitate the refurbishment over the next few months.

R3D said the plant appears in “reasonable order” with some civil repair work required as well as upgrading the electrical control panels to meet current safety standards. Some tank and pipe replacements are required, although most tanks remain in good operational order.

R3D managing director Stephen Bartrop said the heap leach-solvent extraction-crystallisation plant is expected to re-enter the copper sulphate market “later this year”.

“The current conflict in Ukraine has placed constraints on the supply of copper sulphate worldwide and this is likely to facilitate the placement of our future production to customers wishing to diversify their supply sources,” he said.

“Our discussion with offtake partners are progressing very well who want to secure the product for their clients who are currently receiving their product from overseas”, he added.

Mr Bartrop said the refurbishment remains on track with production anticipated in the first half of the 2023 financial year.

Tartana’s copper sulphate plant

The Tartana copper and zinc project is located about 150km west of Cairns and 40km northwest of Chillagoe in the Queensland’s north.

Tartana’s plant has been on care and maintenance since 2014 although many components remain functional and in reasonable condition.

Its process flowsheet involves storing copper in solution before extracting and upgrading the copper grade in solution using organic solvent extraction, then chilling the solution to crystallise the copper sulphate, and drying and bagging it as a final product for sales.

R3D reported preliminary scoping study parameters in January including a production rate of 6,000-7,000 tonnes per annum, pre-production time of six months, a refurbishment capital cost of $1.21 million and working capital estimate of $205,000.

The company also upgraded its heap leach material to inferred resource status, reporting 292,000 tonnes grading at 0.47% copper for 1,364t of contained copper.

A heap leach sampling program conducted earlier in March is expected to increase the density of sampling of the material on the heap leach pad.

Combined with drilling planned for April, this is anticipated to enable an upgrade of the project’s current resource to indicated or measured category and allow the reporting of ore reserves.

Copper oxide deal signed

This latest project update follows last month’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ark Mines (ASX: AHK) which enables R3D to purchase oxide copper ore from Ark’s Mt Jesse mine in Queensland for treatment through the Tartana plant.

The plant can treat up to 2,375t of recovered copper per annum and all or part of this could be Mt Jesse ore.

In February’s announcement, Mr Bartrop said the MOU leading to the potential purchase of copper oxide is consistent with R3D’s strategy of restarting copper sulphate production and “utilising a mix of copper feedstocks to optimise profitability and longevity”.

Ark executive director Ben Emery said his company would also come out of the deal a winner as it would provide a faster route to commercialisation of the oxide copper ore from its Mt Jesse project.

Drilling to commence in April 2022

As announced in early March, the key exploration targets include Queen Grade zinc project at Tartana, Bellevue OK Mine copper target and the large Beefwood IRGS gold targets. Drilling company has agreed to be paid in shares at a minimum of 20cents per share.

“Our proposed exploration represents an exciting programme with potential to extend existing mineralisation as well as make significant new copper/gold discoveries. The strategy of the Company has been to become a self-funding explorer which is expected to occur later this year”, Mr Bartrop added.