The premier also cut the ribbon at MIM's new Enterprise copper mine, marking the ceremonial completion of the company's $1 billion investment program at Mount Isa and Townsville.
With MIM's fortunes now closely tied to copper prices (the majority of that $1 billion was spent on upgrading Mt Isa's copper operations) the company's new zinc mine has come on stream almost unnoticed.
George Fisher is due to be commissioned in October, hopefully heralding a new era of low-cost zinc production for MIM.
When it gets up to full steam in two years time, the mine should be producing 170,000 tonnes per annum of zinc concentrate, 100,000tpa of crude lead (also containing 5 million ounces of silver), with potential to extend the mine life beyond the current 10 year plan.
It will help lift MIM's annual zinc output from 270,000t currently to around 300,000t by fiscal 2002.
MIM developed George Fisher using existing infrastructure at the ageing Hilton operation.
The project involves trucking ore from George Fisher to Hilton via a 2km underground drive. Ore is then hoisted to the surface by the upgraded Hilton ore handling system before being trucked to Mount Isa (22km south) for concentrating and smelting.
All in all, around 15.4km of horizontal and 5.8km vertical development was required.
The project consumed 400 cubic metres of concrete, 1200 tonnes of structural steel, 22km of piping and 80km of electrical cable.
There are 11 parallel Mount Isa-style zinc-lead-silver orebodies at George Fisher, with mining starting on the higher grade C and D deposits using open stoping methods.
Malcolm Lewis, general manager, George Fisher mine development, said MIM had commissioned the first of three truck loading chutes at George Fisher on the 15C level. A second chute will be finished in around four weeks time and the third in late October.
The trucks will enter a loading loop, position themselves near the appropriate chute and then head south up a slight incline to the P49 shaft at Hilton 2km away.
At the moment, MIM is hauling ore using 40t Komatsu trucks, but has ordered a fleet of 50t Hastings Deering trucks to phase out the old fleet. The operation will eventually require five trucks - two in production, two for development and one for back filling.
Lewis said the aim was to increase annual ore production from George Fisher to 1.8Mt this fiscal year, building up to 2.4Mtpa in 2002.
Part of the $270 million spent at George Fisher was used on upgrading the lead-zinc processing facilities at Mount Isa.
The flotation and regrind sections of the concentrator were modified to allow for processing of the fine-grained George Fisher ore.
The lead smelter was also refurbished and is now back online, according to stockbroker CIBC.
"Although behind schedule by six or seven days because of a fatality, the delay will not greatly affected the target production of 140,000t [of lead] this year because the enlarged capacity of 165,000t per year will enable management to make up for the lost operating time over the remaining financial period," the broker said in its latest research.
"Consequently, MIM has maintained its forecast of 140-145,000t crude lead this year."
MIM is hoping that George Fisher will allow it to reduce the unit cost of zinc production at Mount Isa, after mediocre financial results in recent times.
The Mount Isa lead-zinc-silver division posted a $1.6 million pre-tax loss for the latest half year, dragging down the full-year profit to $12 million.
By comparison, MIM's 70% owned McArthur River mine in the NT overcame a series of technical problems to post a $23.4 million pre-tax surplus for the year just ended.
