Que river

The Que River, zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver mine, 75 kilometres south of Burnie, on the West Coast of Tasmania, is situated on the Bolgobac River. It was originally operated as a small scale operation that was to provide cash for its owner, Bass Metals Limited, to use in developing its other base metal exploration activities.

Que River ore Processed at the Rosebery Mine
Bass Metals carried out extensive trials and processing activities at Que
River in early 2007. This led to the company reaching an agreement with the nearby Rosebery Mine, that was then owned by Zinifex, for Que River ore to be processed at Rosebery. The agreement allowed between 4,200 and 8,000 tonnes of ore to be processed at the Rosebery ore processing facility monthly. Site works were then established and Que River ore began arriving at the Rosebery Processing Plant in late September 2007.

Mancala Awarded the Contract to Operate the Que River Mine
Mining contractor Mancala was awarded the job of operating the Que River Mine for Bass Metals Limited. The agreement formalising Mancala to work in partnership with Bass Metals was called the Que River Mining Alliance. The partnership proved quite successful with high grade ore being mined from a series of open cut operations. However, the agreement only lasted three years but during that time 150 thousand tonnes were mined with no lost time accidents occurring.

Left Over Infrastructure Used from Previous Mining Activity at the Que River Mine
The Que River mining venture was fortunate in that infrastructure was still available on site that had remained there from a previous operation that ceased mining in 1991. This included such things as; a large water settlement dam, a sealed road through from the Murchison Highway and electrical power reticulation.

Bass Metals Took Over Where Aberfoyle Walked Away
The operation being undertaken by Bass Metals Limited, mainly concentrated on recovering remnant ore that had been left behind from a previous underground mining operation that had been undertaken by Aberfoyle Resources in the 1980's. The new open cut lenses strike north east over a distance of 800 metres and extended to a depth of 300 metres below the surface. There are seven deeply descending polymetallic massive sulphide lenses in total.

Bass Metals Vow to Return to Que River in the Future
Bass Metals Limited remain confident that it will return to mining at Que River again in the future as it remains focused on growth, with a portfolio of high quality base metal assets remaining at its Que- Hellyer Volcanics (QHV) deposits, within the rich Mount Read Volcanic Mineral Belt. The QHV has, in the past, at the Que River and Hellyer Mines, produced more than 20 million tonnes of top grade polymetallic sulphide mineralisation with assay results showing 13.7 percent zinc, 7.2 percent lead, 0.4 percent copper, 2.6 grams per tonne of gold, and 172 grams a tonne of silver.
Bass Metals Limited hold tenements extending over an area of 144 square kilometres covering all the exposed and sub-surface extensions of the Que- Hellyer Volcanics.
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