Lady annie

The Lady Annie copper mine, that includes a number of open pits and one central processing centre at Mount Isa in Queensland, is owned and operated by CST Minerals Lady Annie Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese listed, CST Mining Group Limited, an international copper mining company that has its head office in Hong Kong.

Lady Annie Mine is 120 Kilometres From Mount Isa
The Lady Annie mine is located 120 kilometres north west of the major North West Queensland Mining centre of Mount Isa. It is situated within a tenement package that is quite extensive that is presently undergoing aggressive exploration for other copper ore bodies both near the Lady Annie mine and further afield.

High Grade Copper Cathodes Produced From Lady Annie ore Bodies
The Lady Annie open cut operation produces copper cathodes that are of Grade A, London Metal Exchange (LME) quality. This is achieved by means of a SX-EW treatment plant that uses heap leach solvent extraction along with electro winning technology. Production at the Lady Annie Mine is around 25,000 tonnes of copper a year. Reserves stand at 11.2 million tonnes of ore grading at 1.10 percent copper and resources are in the vicinity of 65.2 million tonnes of ore grading at 0.7 percent copper.

CST Increased Production Capacity Through its Mill
CST Mining Group Limited is planning to increase production at the Lady Annie Mine to a capacity of 30,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually. To achieve this target the company constructed additional leach pads at the mine, an extra acid tank and an extra agglomerator drum. The company has also pre-stripped overburden at the site to allow ongoing mining without any hindrance occurring.

Long History of Copper Mining Around the Lady Annie Mine Site
Area surrounding the Lady Annie operation has been mined for the last 60 or so years. These mines have included open pits and underground workings but the first major attempt to get the Lady Annie up and running profitably was when CopperCo brought all the ore bodies under the one umbrella.

Lady Annie hit Hard by GFC
The Lady Annie copper mine was particularly hit by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008. The situation at Lady Annie became so serious CopperCo was forced into the hands of receivers. In early 2009, mining company Cape Lambert purchased CopperCo's debt which gave them possession of the Lady Annie Mine. However, the effects of the GFC were still having an effect on the mining industry and a couple of attempts to get the mine back on its feet failed.

CST buy Lady Annie Mine From Cape Lambert
In 2010, CST Mining Group saw the potential of the Lady Annie and arrangements were made with Cape Lambert to sell the mine to the Chinese miner who was interested in expanding its copper interests and was cashed up ready to do so.

Potential for Growth
CST Mining Group has access to 1,640 square kilometres of tenements that have been granted as well as 1,600 square kilometres currently being applied for. Much of the tenement not under their control has historically been in the hands of many different companies. CST have stated they have three main objectives to aim for with the acquisition of the Lady Annie copper mine. These are to increase the life of mine from its current three to four years, to eight years and then if resources can be sufficiently identified an ultimate life of mine of up to 20 years. The confidence in making these projections comes from the fact that each of the pits currently being mined at Lady Annie have significant sulphide potential.
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