The Hera underground mine, near Nymagee, is now expected to permanently cease mining operations towards the end of March 2023, following the completion of a re-optimisation of the life of mine plan by Aurelia Metals.
It has been assessed that only short-term cash flow amelioration is possible at Hera, hence the decision to cease commercial production.
Hera’s surface facilities will then transition to Care and Maintenance before being utilised for the Federation Project.
Cessation of mining will be earlier than previously planned, but following two quarters of negative cash flow from the asset, it is necessary to implement the change to return the Hera Mine to a forecast cash flow positive position for the remainder of its life.
The revised mine plan will sequence the highest value ore within the remaining available ore sources to maximise cash generation from the remaining mineral inventory at Hera.
Aurelia Metals will continuously monitor mining performance and operational stability through the remaining period, with clear triggers for any further actions with respect to the mine plan.
Commenting on the updated plan, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Graham, said, “As outlined in our recent market updates, we are focused on every operating asset in the portfolio generating positive cash flow as an absolute minimum.
“At Hera this has not been the case in recent quarters. I am confident our revised mine plan will return Hera to positively contributing to the cash flow of the company over its remaining operating life.”
Mr Graham said the news was challenging employees, contractors and the local community, but it was a decision that had to be made in the interests of Aurelia’s shareholders.
“We don’t make this change lightly.
“We are consulting with our workforce at Hera to explore options to redeploy as many of them as possible to our Peak operations, where vacancies exist because of our transition to owner-mining and the generally tight mining labour market,” Mr Graham said.
“We are also looking to redeploy people further afield to our Dargues Mine. Despite these redeployment activities, there will be some redundancies at the cessation of Hera’s operations.”
