The resurgence of mining in the Cobar Basin continues to move from strength to strength, with Aurelia Metals reporting a strong performance for the final quarter of 2024.

The company has multiple projects moving ahead, and has based its ongoing strategy on having infrastructure at Federation Mine, near Nymagee, be funded by the expansion of its Peak Mine, south of Cobar.

The company primarily mines gold and base metals including copper.

Highlights from the quarter included continued strong cash flow from the Peak operations, the first concentrate produced from ore at the Federation Mine, and a lifting of operating performance at Peak.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Quinn said the production of the first ore from Federation Mine was particularly encouraging. “The excellent throughput and recovery results from the December processing campaign is an exciting milestone for Aurelia.

“Peak continued to generate strong cash flow that enabled us to fund our growth, exploration and closure activities. And with efforts to improve operational productivity ongoing, we remain on track to deliver our production and cost guidance for the year.

“Peak is funding Federation and our exploration activities,” Mr Quinn said. “We’re in quite a unique position. Most companies of our size don’t have the ability to have one project providing the cash flow to fund other growth.

“Gold commodity prices are helping fund our future in base metals and copper.”

Aurelia Metals has been active in the Cobar Basin for several years, with Peak Mine built in 1990’s by Rio Tinto.

Mr Quinn said the challenges the company now faced were sustainability and health and safety. 

“That’s the highest value we have. We feel a sense of achievement when our workers are safe and there are no injuries.”

The company aims to build to a workforce of 500-600 workers, including contractors, through a mix of drive-in-drive out and FIFO workers.

“Certain roles are more difficult to fill than others. We’re competing with those mining companies across the Eastern Seaboard, so attracting professional people, the specialist engineering types is sometimes challenging.”

And despite those recruitment challenges on the horizon as the company builds up multiple projects, Mr Quinn praised the current teams on the ground. “The team has been able to perform at a significant level, with our safety performance improving in recent quarters.”