New Century Resources has started producing zinc rougher concentrate at the Century zinc mine in Queensland’s lower gulf, where it is mining and retreating mineralised tailings.

Hydraulic mining at the former MMG site kicked off last week and New Century said the start of tailings slurry flotation represented an important milestone in the restart – demonstrating the initial proof-of-concept for the large-scale treatment of tailings through the existing processing facilities.

The company said ramp-up activities at Century were now focused on progressively optimising concentrate product quality through the zinc cleaner circuit, followed by zinc and silver recoveries and plant throughput.

Century has an estimated production capacity, based on current ore reserves within the tailings, of 264,000tpa zinc and 3Moz pa silver over an initial mine life of 6.3 years. Further mineral deposits offer potential mine life extension.