Rosebery Mine is situated on the west coast of Tasmania and is Australia's largest volcanic-hosted base and precious metals deposit (zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver). The milling operation has been producing zinc, lead and copper concentrates continuously for over 100 years. Rosebery's long life demonstrates the operation to be high grade, and high margin, capable of operating through several commodity price cycles. Paradoxically, throughout this long history the life-of-mine' as defined by proven and probable reserves has been short._x000D_
Zinifex has demonstrated its commitment to discover the future of Rosebery with the growth project Project Horizons'. The aim of the project is to extend the life of mine beyond 2020, with an additional exploration expenditure of $19 million over three years. Despite the maturity of the deposit, early success has confirmed the potential with the discovery of new resources._x000D_
Mine planning strategic studies are challenging established paradigms of mine production, throughput rates and metal cut-off grades. Discovering the optimal process rate for Rosebery, by examining the Hill of Value' and underground mine optimisation is proving critical to the best exploitation of Rosebery's rich resources._x000D_
The promise of finding a mine within a mine is being realised, with new lenses being delivered by exploration success and real grade/tonnage options optimised through dynamic mine planning. The future of Rosebery is co-dependent on these two areas of discovery. This ensures capital expenditure decisions are informed, to secure the next 20 years of wealth creation and beyond._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Ellice, T, 2008. New Rosebery - discovering the next 20 years, in Proceedings Tenth Underground Operators' Conference 2008, pp 49-54 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).