September 23, 2024: Aurelia’s Federation Mine, formally opened in Australia on September 11, is projected to produce up to 600,000 tonnes of ore annually, focusing on lead, high-grade zinc, gold and copper.

Sale of metal from the New South Wales mine’s ores are forecast to earn NSW royalties of around A$74 million ($50 million) over the initial eight-year life of the facility.

MD and CEO Bryan Quinn said: “As one of the highest-grade base metal development projects in Australia, Federation is an important step for the future growth of Aurelia and the production of minerals to meet the decarbonization challenge.”

Aurelia’s exploration team discovered the high-grade Federation deposit in April 2019 and quickly moved to accelerate exploration and infill drilling, in conjunction with project evaluation and permitting applications.

A feasibility study published in mid-2022 said the mine had a maiden ore reserve estimate of 2.2 million tonnes at 8.9% Zn, 5.3% Pb, 0.3% Cu, 1.4g/t Au and 6g/t Ag.