Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Tartana Minerals (ASX:TAT), Managing Director Dr Stephen Bartrop
Lel Smits: Tartana Minerals is building a diversified Far North Queensland copper, gold and critical minerals business and has just launched its largest drilling campaign to date. The company stacked 50,000 tonnes of mineralised material on its heap leach pad, advanced upgrades to its copper sulphate plant and acquired a new drilling rig for a 21,000 metre exploration program. I’m joined today by Managing Director Dr Stephen Bartrop to discuss production growth and also exploration plans for the year ahead.
Steve, welcome to the Stock Network.
Stephen Bartrop: Thanks, Lel. Pleased to be here.
It’s a pleasure to have you on. And look, you’ve stacked 50,000 tonnes of mineralised material on the heap leach pad. What does this really mean in terms of getting copper production moving again and also really generating revenue?
Stephen Bartrop: Look, Lel, we’ve got a copper heap leach project that we produce copper sulphate and we sell that into the North Queensland mining industry.
We’ve produced around or we’ve sold about $3 million worth of copper sulphate over the last 18 months as part of a process of commissioning the plant and getting it up to speed. One of the last items that had to be either commissioned or replaced was the chillers and we found that the existing chillers were faulty. So we’ve spent probably around $450,000 to replace those chillers with brand new chillers and those chillers are going to be installed next week.
And so combining that with 50,000 tonnes of copper mineralised material that we’ve placed on the heaps, copper sulphate production will start commencing over the next two weeks and we’ll get back into the production that we experienced last year and even beyond.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And if we can look really in terms of your plans of building a regional copper gold platform beyond the Tartana mine site, the company is also advancing exploration that’s across Cardross, Mountain Maiden and also the broader Chilligo region.
What potential are you really looking at now and seeing for developing a larger scale copper gold production hub in far north Queensland?
Stephen Bartrop: Look, it’s a very interesting and very prospective area, as well. We’ve got a primary copper resource that we’ve previously announced of 45,000 tonnes that contain copper, but we’re in the process of drilling that because we know that copper mineralisation extends for probably well over 500 metres in depth. So we actually have a drill rig turning at the moment, our drill rig that we’ve purchased.
But in addition, nearby projects that we’ve been working on, we’ve announced a million ounces, which is the combined resources for both Cardross and Mountain Maiden. So you can see that whole regional area, if you combine the copper that we have at Tartana and the Gold resources, we could produce quite a significant copper gold concentrate. Now, the question is really, will that involve building our own plant at the Tartana mine site or will we, which we have been looking at, is utilising the Mangana processing plant, which is on current maintenance about 25 kilometres down the road.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And in terms of critical minerals, you’ve also got exposure to tin, tungsten and antimony projects in the Herberton region. How really are you looking at these assets in terms of complementing the company’s copper focus that you’ve outlined, and also that broader long-term growth strategy?
Stephen Bartrop: Well, we’ve got a number of options with those projects.
So we’ve aggregated quite an extensive position in that far north Queensland region, and particularly covering those tin, tungsten and antimony projects. As you’ll recall, we’ve purchased our own drilling rig and so we’re going to go out and start drilling those projects such as Daisy Bell, which has very attractive historical intersections previously drilled. So we’ve got a number of projects that came with the acquisition of Queensland strategic metals 12 months ago, and we’re now going to start accelerating that work.
We have a number of options also, and I agree with you, it’s quite different to the copper-gold story that we’re talking around in Chiligo. And so we have a number of options that we can create value for our shareholders with those projects. So I guess the key thing is that we have those projects and we can actually drill those projects to demonstrate the mineralisation is there and then monetise to some degree.
Lel Smits: Excellent. Well, it’s been a pleasure to hear from you and get the latest from Tartana and look forward to hearing more in the future as well.
Stephen Bartrop: All right. Thank you.
Ends