NEW CENTURY RESOURCES
“ We were able to convert the tailings dam at Century into what was at the time , and still is , the 14th largest known mined zinc reserve in the world — 77mn tonnes of tailings , containing 3 % recoverable zinc with homogenous grade distribution ”
— Barry Harris , Chief Operating Officer , New Century Resources
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During initial operations , Century was one of the world ’ s largest base metal mines , churning out an average 475,000tpa of zinc and 50,000tpa of lead in concentrate products over its history . Pasminco went into voluntary administration in 2001 due to numerous corporate issues and the Century asset transferred into a new entity Zinifex . Zinifex did extremely well when the zinc price skyrocketed in 2006 before being part of a merger that created OZ Minerals which , in turn , was acquired by MMG . The latter went on to run the Century mine site through until the exhaustion of the main ore body in 2016 .
Explaining Century ’ s chequered past , New Century Resources ’ Chief
FEBRUARY 2020