Fox expands operations at once-exhausted mine

SYDNEY - Nickel miner Fox Resources is looking to expand its nickel and copper mining operations in the Australian Outback from a once-spent mine.

Fox Resources, which already ships about 35,000 tonnes of nickel and copper-bearing concentrates (ground ore) monthly to Chinese metals refiner Jinchuan, said it had identified an additional 40,000 tones of nickel and 50,000 tonnes of copper at its Radio Hill mine and surrounding deposits.

Fox said it would start production next year after a study on the economic feasibility of mining and leaching metal from the ore.

Last year, Fox signed a three-year agreement to sell concentrate to Jinchuan, which processes the material into refined metal.

Last month, Fox shipped concentrate containing 317 tonnes of nickel and 259 tonnes of copper to Jinchuan.

Nickel sells for about US$14,650 ($21,177) a tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Copper fetches about US$3000 a tonne.

Fox restarted mining at the Radio Hill lode last year, two years after the mine was left for dead.

It was shut in 2002 by Titan Resources after exhausting shallow reserves of ore.

Fox bought the mine site later that year and refurbished it to tap deeper veins.

- REUTERS