might be the end of the selling at 10.5, were slowly heading north doing the appropriate volume at each level, may be time for the big boys to start some chomping to get the markets attention
Seriously two good announcmeents not priced in:
1. Mining Commences at Leichhardt Summary • Mining operations have commenced at Mt Watson • Mt Watson haul road construction will be completed during April • Ore haulage to the Mt Cuthbert processing plant will commence during May • Leichhardt processing plant refurbishment will be completed during May • Commissioning of crushing operations will commence during June • First copper cathode production will be during July 2007 Leichhardt Leichhardt will produce copper cathode at the Mt Cuthbert processing plant using ore from the nearby Mt Watson orebody, utilising the heap-leach - solvent extraction - electrowinning process (“SX/EW”). The mining fleet of one Komatsu PC 850 excavator (85 tonne capacity), one Komatsu PC220 excavator, three Komatsu 465 dump trucks (50 tonne capacity each), one Komatsu 275 bulldozer, one Komatsu 65S grader, one water cart and the drill and blast rig are on site and mining operations have commenced. Initially, top soil will be removed and stored for later use and then stockpiles of ore will be built up at the Mt Watson mine site. Construction of the haul road from the Mt Watson orebody to the Mt Cuthbert processing plant has essentially been completed and it is anticipated that the haul road will be fully operational by the end of April. Ore cartage will commence during May, with stockpiles of ore to be built up at the Mt Cuthbert ROM pad. The crushing circuit will arrive on site during May and its commissioning will be undertaken during June. During this commissioning stage, new ore will be stacked on 2 the leach pads which will enable the irrigation of ore during June. The crushing circuit has been built to accommodate the expanded Stage 2 production requirements of 10,000 tpa of copper cathode, further details of which are below. The final stages of refurbishment of the Mt Cuthbert processing plant are currently being undertaken. This work has included replacement of the old electrowinning cells with “as-new” cells previously purchased for the project, refurbishment of the solvent extraction tanks, overhaul and repair of the process water ponds and the installation of a new acid delivery system to the agglomerator. Also, a new additional accommodation village and facilities are being installed. A engineering contractor is managing these activities and their construction team is expected to demobilise during the second week of May. A specialist mechanical and electrical commissioning team from the same engineering contractor is scheduled to arrive at Mt Cuthbert during May to complete all of the inspection test plans prior to practical completion. A separate specialist process commissioning team will mobilise to site in early May to ensure effective commissioning of the entire processing circuit. Planned Production Expansion Stage One production from Leichhardt will produce copper cathode at a rate of 5,500 tpa of copper cathode, by treating of 2.1 million tonnes of ore over a four year period from the Mt Watson orebody. The Mt Watson orebody has a total resource of 8 million tonnes of ore. Following further metallurgical and geotechnical testing, life extensions and/or a production rate increase is planned for the Mt Cuthbert processing plant. In addition, there are previously identified prospects at Mt Earl, Mt Wonder, Tewinga and Boomerang (all within the vicinity of Mt Watson) which may also provide the opportunity for further extensions and/or production rate increases. The Mt Cuthbert plant can quite quickly be upgraded to a capacity of 10,000 tpa of copper cathode production. Matrix has already purchased the main equipment expansion components required for the upgrade, being the rectifier and electrowinning circuit. The upgrade of the Mt Cuthbert plant to 10,000 tpa of copper cathode production was previously the subject of a study by Matrix. Once results of the metallurgical testing and geotechnical drilling are available the study will be updated and economics assessed. Yours Faithfully Shane McBride Managing Director
2. Xstrata Copper Commences Drilling at McCabe Matrix Metals Limited is pleased to announce that it has been advised by Xstrata Copper (“Xstrata”) that drilling has commenced at the McCabe deposit. Xstrata advises “drilling has commenced to drill test copper sulphide targets at greater than 100 metres depth at the McCabe Prospect by drilling five, possibly six, diamond drill holes to depths of 350-550 metres. Targets have been selected from a synthesis of previous exploration work and results from the IP-resistivity survey conducted in October 2006. Individual targets include the interpreted chloritic breccia pipe that partly hosts the Mount McCabe copper deposit, IP anomalism that extends further northwest than the current limit of drilling and the mineralisation trend which extends to the northeast of the Mount McCabe deposit.” This drilling forms part of the earn-in expenditure whereby Xstrata has the right to spend A$5m within a three year period to earn a 55% joint venture interest in the McCabe area. Xstrata then has the right to earn a further 20% joint venture interest by spending a further A$10m within a further five year period or by completing a feasibility study during these sole funding periods. Matrix preserves its ability to mine oxide and transitional copper in it’s own right by maintaining 100% ownership of the tenements to a depth of 100 metres until a decision to mine is made at which time the JV has the right to buy that part of the tenements at fair market value. Details of the Joint Venture Area & the McCabe Deposit The area of the JV, totalling approximately 103 square kilometres and covering tenements ML 90082 and EPM 14148, is located approximately 40 kilometres south of Cloncurry as presented in red shading on figure following. Matrix’s total tenement position in the Mount Isa/Cloncurry region totals approximately 4,300 square kilometres. The McCabe deposit, currently comprises a resource of 1.7 million tonnes @ 1.24% copper at a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu ( see ASX announcement dated 16 January 2006).
MRX Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
