Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) has completed its acquisition of the Leigh Creek copper mine in South Australia, following the payment of A$1.5mln.
A further issue of Strategic Minerals shares valued at A$1.45mln, based on the volume weighted average share price throughout the month of March, is due in early April.
READ: Strategic Minerals poised to tie up Leigh Creek acquisition, production to resume in a year
These shares are subject to dealing restrictions, with one third being locked-up for three months after issue, and another third being locked-up for six months after issue.
The addition of Leigh Creek adds additional diversity to a company which already has exploration exposure to nickel, cobalt, rare earths, nickel, and tungsten, and cashflow from the production of a magnetite tailings dam in Mexico.
Leigh Creek is based in the northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia and is accessible from the township of Leigh Creek.
It has three approved mining leases that cover a number of copper oxide deposits, including Lorna Doone, Lynda, Mountain of Light and the Mount Coffin deposit. An estimated JORC 2012 compliant Resource of 3.61mln tonnes at 0.69% copper for 24,900 of copper metal forms the base of the project.
Additional non-JORC compliant ore sources of 1.8mln tonnes at 0.68% copper have also been identified within existing mining leases.
A feasibility study for Leigh Creek was completed by Terra Consulting in November 2016 and compiled geology, resources, mining, processing and marketing relating to the project.
The study focussed on treating oxide copper initially from two open pits (Lorna Doone and Lynda), treating the ore via a heap leach process to recover the copper into a copper sulphate solution, and extracting the copper into a copper cement via two existing Kennecott cones.
Strategic Minerals believes there is a significant opportunity here to generate near-term cash flow.