New Century Resources has sealed a gas deal with Santos as it works towards a start to production at the lower Gulf’s Century zinc site.

Worth about $100 million , the agreement represents the single largest contract award by the company to date, allowing for the supply of about 9PJ of gas over four years.

New Century Resources said the contract was a plank in a Century power strategy which it has been pursuing since early last year, targeting reinvigoration of existing grid power infrastructure from Mount Isa for Century operations.

It allows the company access to gas-fired power generation for the operations as opposed to more expensive on site diesel generation.

New Century utilities manager Michael Pitt said the Santos agreement provided the required gas supply volumes for restarting operations, but also significant flexibility during ramp-up at the mine.

“After a highly competitive tender process for the supply of gas, we are thrilled to have entered into a long term contract with our partners at Santos and look forward to a strong working relationship as we transition into full operations at Century,” he said.

New Century Resources is aiming to restart the Century site in the third quarter of this year, initially targeting tailing for reprocessing.