Copper heats up as global demand spikes

After climbing to near-decade highs on the London Metals Exchange this year, there are signs that the red metal will become as vital as ever as demand for these technologies grows.

Local copper exports already achieved a record revenue of $10.4 billion in 2020, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

While global copper production is dominated by major mining companies, Cyprium Metals is pushing towards becoming a mid-tier producer in Australia to make its mark on the industry.

The Perth-based company is comprised of mining executives with strong experience working in both local and international copper projects.

In February, Cyprium made a key move in this direction by acquiring Metals X’s copper portfolio for $60 million.

The buyout includes the mothballed Nifty copper mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which Metals X placed on care and maintenance in 2019 after acquiring the site three years earlier.

Nifty was first discovered in the 1980s but progress at the site stalled due to a lack of exploration.

For Cyprium Metals, however, all systems are go at Nifty as the company looks to advance its path towards the mid-tier sector.

“It always was attractive for us in terms of the size, the copper metal, in terms of the fact it’s a stressed asset, that it’s in Western Australia, and the infrastructure surrounding it,” Cyprium Metals managing director Barry Cahill tells Australian Mining. “We’re really happy to get a hold of it.”

Cahill says Cyprium is firing on all cylinders to make its mid-tier prospects possible.

“Really the focus is on copper production,” he says. “We’re not explorers, we’re resource developers, operators, producers and financiers.

“We like to get copper resources and turn them into operating projects and make them commercial – that’s what gets us excited.”

Cyprium is looking to develop the Nifty mine exclusively into an open pit site, unlike previous owner Metals X, which operated an underground operation at the site.

This strategy continued into Metal X’s reset plan at Nifty, but Cyprium has other ideas for how to approach mining of the resource.

“The reset plan didn’t work is the fundamental answer,” Cahill says. “Whatever was in the plan didn’t work. The reset plan involved underground, we’re involving an open pit instead.”

Rather than using the Nifty concentrator, Cyprium plans to use a heap leaching method, which it believes is more economically viable.

“We’re producing copper metal plate with the heap leaching instead so it’s a finished product rather than a concentrate, which was done at Nifty previously,” Cahill says.

“Copper metal plate sells all over the world mainly into Asia at the moment but also into the Europe and the United States.”

The company hopes to commission the plant and produce first copper by the end of 2022, followed by full production in 2023, with current targets of 20,000 tonnes of copper per annum.

A feasibility study is also due by September this year to upgrade the proof of concept study that was completed as part of the due diligence process prio to the purchase, Cahill continues.

“Metals X released their scoping study last year,” he says. “We don’t agree with the concepts in there, but it goes to show there’s a lot of data available to turn into the feasibility study.”