New Century Resources says planned refurbishment activities are 95 per cent complete as it heads towards an August start to production at the Century zinc operation in north-west Queensland.

All civil works for hydraulic mining operations and administration areas have been completed, a power supply hooked up to the tailings area to be mined and pipework completed to connect the tailings slurry pumping infrastructure with the Century processing plant.

New Century said up to 290 company staff and contractors were on site in June for activities including refurbishment and commissioning of the mills and other plant.

The company has also been carrying out dredging and other works to resume exports from the port of Karumba.

New Century is initially looking to reprocess tailings as it restarts operations at the former MMG zinc mine, with an expected start-up cost  of $62.5 million. Once in production, the company plans to invest a further $63 million over a 15-month period to ramp up to 15Mtpa.

Hydraulic mining operational and maintenance crew hiring has been completed, with site-based onboarding this month in preparation for the start of mining activities.

Processing plant operational and maintenance crew hiring has been completed, with site-based onboarding starting mid-July in preparation for first production in August.

Port operational and maintenance crew hiring is 90 per cent complete, with site-based onboarding starting late July.