Xstrata announced that the Company has suspended A$586 million of expenditure to develop both the A$6 billion Wandoan thermal coal project and a A$600 million project to extend the life of the Ernest Henry copper mine, with immediate effect. The decisions represent the initial findings from Xstrata's ongoing review of planned investment into its Australian operations and growth projects as a result of the Australian Government's proposed Resource Super Profits Tax.
Xstrata Copper announced approvals for a total investment of US$542 million (approximately AUD589 million) to extend the life of its Ernest Henry Mining operations near Cloncurry in Australia, to at least 2024. The decision follows feasibility studies into the construction of a magnetite processing facility and the installation of full scale underground mining operations that have resulted in a revised Ore Reserve Estimate of 72 million tonnes at a grade of 1.0% copper, 0.5 g/t gold and 22% magnetite.
Reported that the feasibility study into a potential large scale underground sub-level caving operation at Ernest Henry is expected to be completed in the first half of 2009. In August 2008, the Ernest Henry open pit had a wedge failure in the southern wall. Whilst this did not impact ore production in 2008, as part of the ongoing reassessment of ground conditions, engineering and geotechnical assessments are currently under way to determine the optimal mine plan and schedule.
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