Strategic Minerals PLC (LON:SML) shares were lifted on Thursday after saying it plans to restart copper production at the Leigh Creek copper mine’s Mountain of Light (MoL) processing facility in April.
John Peters, managing director of the exploration firm, said the restart was “a significant step” toward full-scale production at the project, which is scheduled for late 2019 and early 2020.
To help with the restart Strategic is working with PPM Global, a company that had previously worked at the MoL plant and is in charge of refurbishing and managing a trial restart of operations.
The MoL plant operates using heap leach pads, a technique where chemicals are fed through ore and dissolve the metal, after which electricity is used to separate it from the rest of the solution. This is normally more profitable when used on low-grade ore.
Peters added that while the operations at MoL were due to start in April, the first shipment of copper was not expected from the plant for three months afterwards.
Regarding the restart of full-scale production at Leigh Creek, the company said a feasibility study for the Paltridge North and Rosmann East deposits at the site was “well advanced” and expected a resource estimate by the late second quarter or early third quarter of 2019.
Drilling results at the two deposits released in February returned strong copper grades.
In late-morning trading, shares were up 1.5% at 1.7p.
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