The Selwyn copper and gold project, located 150km south-east of Mount Isa, was placed on care and maintenance in mid-1999 when previous owner Australian Resources Ltd was forced to sell after going into receivership.

Selwyn Mines and a group of private investors recommenced mining in March and have not looked back since.

The company now wholly-owns the project after doing a deal with investors ahead of floating on the market.

Currently the Mt Elliott mine is producing beyond company forecasts, milling about 600,000 tonnes per annum.

At full capacity, the operation is capable of producing 750,000tpa, technical director Gavin Daneel said.

Recent drilling in the Corbould area, central to Mt Elliott, produced results including 18m at 21% copper and 6.6gpt gold, and 38.7m at 10.8% copper and 3.4gpt gold, which will see more high-grade base metals coming out of the Selwyn mine.

Selwyn has a mine life of three and a half years, which the company wants to extend.

“We are now looking at extending the envelope of the known orebody to discover more mineralisation,” Daneel said.

“Through brownfields exploration we hope to extend the mine life of Selwyn.”

Preliminary diamond drilling of Area 276 included 38m at 2.76% copper and 1.64gpt gold.

The company is currently undertaking a scoping study of the Mount Dore copper deposit, with the view of developing the project as a stand-alone operation.

The company’s immediate goal is to revise resource stocks before compiling a first year prospectus, Daneel said.

“If we increase the mine life of Selwyn it will be in the best interest of the shareholders and we can create dividends.”