South32’s Cannington silver-lead mine in North West Queensland has had a successful second half of 2021 as the company prepares to transition to 100 per cent truck haulage at the site.
Cannington remains on track to transition to a 100 per cent truck haulage operation from the June 2022 quarter as a low-cost capital option that has the potential to bring forward further higher-grade material from the 2023 financial year at current operating costs and throughput rates.
A trial of light battery electric vehicles is also expected to commence during the June 2022 half-year, testing their potential use in the vehicle fleet.
Cannington has recorded a 9 per cent increase of payable zinc equivalent production in the December 2021 half year.
The increase brought the production to 152,500 tonnes for the half as higher grades across all products and strong underground performance supported metal production.