Metro Mining Limited’s flagship Bauxite Hills Mine is located 95 kilometres north of Weipa on Western Cape York in Queensland, where the company holds a total tenement package covering approximately 1,900 square kilometres.
The Bauxite Hills Mine alone has an estimated ore Reserve of 109.5 Million tonnes (Mt) and total Resources of 138.2 Mt.
In an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) announcement on 7 May 2020, Metro Mining said “since mining operations commenced in 2018, this has been the best start to the year for both mining and shipping”.
The miner outlined that a total of 415,000 wet metric tonnes (WMT) of bauxite was mined in the month of April, with 14,297 WMT mined each day [1].
The company also shipped a total of 245,000 WMT in April, at 14,388 WMT per day [2]. The ore is shipped to China to meet strong market demand.
Production and shipping guidance for the June quarter is at 900,000 to 1.1 million WMT of bauxite.
Metro Mining said the strong April results exceeded budget and are attributable to greater experience and continuity of workforce, recent upgrades to plant and equipment and favourable weather conditions.
The results were achieved in spite of essential COVID-19 safety procedures implemented on-site prior to resumption of operations.
“This is a very pleasing start for 2020,” said Metro Mining’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Finnis.
“We have had a seamless transition back into operations and as a result have been able to build significant stockpiles at the Port, positioning the project for continued strong operational performance.”
“The team has responded well to the additional procedures required as a result of COVID-19 and that is clear in the results we have achieved.”
[1] Daily rate based on mining commencement date of 2 April 2020. Mining commenced on a day shift only basis, with 24-hour mining operation implemented a week later.
[2] Daily rate based on shipping commencement date of 14 April 2020.