Business
9 April, 2025
Black Star Open Cut is the key to Mount Isa's future
Glencore says all energy is being focused on the feasibility study of the Black Star project.
Glencore says it is focused on reducing the time between the closure of its underground copper mines and the development of the Black Star Open Cut mine.
Speaking at the final community update forum ahead of the MICO closure in July, Glencore’s outgoing zinc assets chief operating officer Sam Strohmayr said the pre-feasibility study into the Black Star project, which is located over the same area as the underground mine, was expected to be completed by the middle of the year.
With the final underground shift set to end on July 29 or 30, Mr Strohmayr said the company was focused on reaching a final investment decision on Black Star, which would deliver up to 400 jobs and could have a mine life of up to 20 years.
He said the feasibility study was expected to be completed by the end of 2026 and the first production target for Black Star was hoped for 2027 or 2028.
Mr Strohmayr said three drilling rigs were currently on site and had gathered data from six holes, as part of a 34-hole research program.
He said the project had the potential to become a large-scale operation that provided zinc, lead and copper ore to processing facilities at Mount Isa Mines.
Mr Strohmayr said Glencore was exploring the options available to bring parts of the project forward following completion of the results of the pre-feasibility study and regulatory approvals.
“At this stage everything is looking quite positive, and the economics is looking quite promising, but we need to give the study phase a bit more time,” he said.
Mr Strohmayr reaffirmed expectations there would be about 500 job losses following the MICO closure, substantially less than the 1200 jobs initially scheduled. He said efforts to redeploy workers to other sections of the business, especially George Fisher, had seen 170 people either transferred or finalising their transfer, with a further 211 workers seeking redeployment.
Mr Strohmayr said no employees within the university graduate programs and apprenticeships would be affected by the MICO closure.