London (Platts)--21Dec2012/828 am EST/1328 GMT
Xstrata Zinc plans to increase ore production by a further 33% to 1.6 million mt/year at its high-grade Lady Loretta mine in north-west Queensland, Australia, the company said Friday. The greenfield underground zinc-lead-silver Lady Loretta mine began ore production ahead of schedule in September; commercial-scale mining is due to begin in mid-2013, reaching the expanded production rate of 1.6 million mt/year by 2016. Lady Loretta was originally designed to produce 1 million mt/year of ore, but an internal study identified an opportunity to increase the maximum output by reviewing stoping sequences over the life of mine, the company said. This latest expansion increases maximum output by 60% over the original mine plan through a A$59.2 million (US$60.4 million) project and brings the total investment to develop the mine to date to A$362.2 million. The Lady Loretta deposit contains an estimated 12.7 million mt reserve, consisting of a 14.2% zinc and 4.8% lead grade, alongside 84 g/mt of silver per tonne. The amount of zinc metal contained is assessed at 1.803 million mt, with lead metal contained at 610,000 mt.--Andy Blamey, andy_blamey@plattts.com --Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy_lovell@platts.com