Broken Hill Mines ASX:BHM has delivered the first silver-lead-zinc ore from its restart of operations at the Edwards open pit within the Pinnacles mine in New South Wales.

The ore was mined at Edwards before being crushed and hauled 15 kilometres to the company’s 750,000-tonnes-per-annum Rasp processing plant.

Along with ore from the Main Lode and Western Min deposits, this represents the third high-grade bulk feed source to Rasp, ensuring the plant is utilised to its maximum capacity.

Restarting operations within the Edwards pit has minimised strip ratios normally associated with first production.

This in turn has enabled Broken Hill Mines to access up to 50,000 tonnes of high-grade ore identified directly in the pit floor, which has remained unmined since the onset of the CoVid pandemic.

Edwards Pit Expansion

The Edwards pit includes significant high-grade silver-lead-zinc intercepts released over the last 12 months, building on historical operations at Pinnacles that focused on extraction of silver and lead only, with zinc not considered a primary target.

Broken Hill Mines will progressively expand the pit into the Consols South, Fishers, Rope Shaft, and Junction areas, targeting existing resources and new mineralised zones that have been shown through drilling results to date.

The company will incorporate the results into an update of the existing mineral resource at Pinnacles, which currently totals 6Mt grading 13.5% zinc equivalent and 374 grams per tonne silver equivalent (132g/t silver, 3.3% lead, and 4.7% zinc).

At the same time, it will assess the potential for additional ore feed to the Rasp plant from sources including high-grade underground mining at Pinnacles and development of the Centenary ore body at the Rasp mine.

Two Rasp Ore Bodies

The Rasp mine contains two silver-lead-zinc sulphide bodies at Western Mineralisation and the high-grade Main Lode, both of which lie in the centre of Broken Hill at the heart of the famous ‘Line of Lode’.

Discovered in 1885, Main Lode has been mined intermittently from underground and open-cut operations for approximately 140 years.

Mining and processing of the Blackwoods ore body within Main Lode—which commenced in October—contains materially elevated silver grades, providing Broken Hill with increased exposure to precious metal revenue as the silver price stays strong.

Ore feed to the Rasp plant from Main Lode complements long-term foundational base ore supply from the Western Min body.

Plant-Sharing Agreement

Broken Hill Mines recently signed a 10-year plant-sharing agreement to allow Kingfisher Mining ASX:KFM to use Rasp for processing of ore from its advanced Allendale (silver-lead-zinc) and Copper Blow (iron-oxide-copper-gold) projects.

The plant provides a ready-made pathway for Kingfisher’s product to reach the market while allowing it to bypass the significant capital expenditure and multi-year timelines needed to build its own standalone infrastructure.

Broken Hill Mines’ regional mining and processing capacity, skilled workforce, logistics networks, and proven metallurgical and marketing expertise will provide Kingfisher with a strategic option to shorten the timeline from discovery to production and revenue.

Allendale and Copper Blow are held under a joint venture agreement between Kingfisher (75% equity) and Broken Hill Mines (25%).