Welcome to Equinox Minerals Limited
Equinox Minerals Limited is an international mining company that is dual listed in Canada and Australia on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange (Symbol: 'EQN').
The Company is currently focused on operating its 100% owned large scale Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, one of the largest new copper mines to be developed globally over the last decade.
Equinox acquired the Lumwana project in 1999 and following nearly 10 years of feasibility, financing and construction, commissioned the mine, plant and infrastructure in December 2008.
Situated 220 km west of the Zambian Copperbelt, Lumwana is now a major open-cut copper mine which positions Equinox as one of the world’s top 20 copper producing companies.
At initial design capacity, Lumwana is processing about 20 million tonnes of ore per year, mined at an average life of mine strip ratio of 4.2:1. Lumwana ore, which is predominantly sulphide, is treated through a large, yet conventional plant, producing a copper concentrate for sale to local and international offtakers.
In addition, Equinox is looking at opportunities to grow the Company. Internally, organic growth opportunities include phased expansions of the Lumwana copper mine and plant to increase process throughput rates to 24 Mtpa, and then up to 35 Mtpa, maximizing the benefit of the large scale Lumwana copper resource. Externally, the Company is investigating international acquisition opportunities to grow the Company. Equinox is approaching the assessment of these internal and external growth opportunities with rigor and discipline to ensure that any investments are accretive.
Our Key Objectives
- Produce 135,000 tonnes (300 million pounds) of copper metal in concentrates in 2010 at a C1 operating cost of $1.35 per pound of copper.
- Achieve the plant design throughput rate of 20Mtpa for the mine and mill in the second half of 2010.
- Once design throughput for the mine and mill is achieved, optimize and de-bottleneck the plant to increase throughput to 24Mtpa over a subsequent 18 month timeframe.
- Given the large resource and long mine life at Lumwana, evaluate further expansion opportunities to increase throughput to greater than 30Mtpa.
- Continue to assess the development of a uranium process plant, subject to offtake, marketing and financing arrangements.
- Accelerate the exploration effort on the Lumwana mining licence to identify potential additional sources of ore for the Lumwana mill. Expand the regional exploration program in Zambia and consider opportunities elsewhere.
- As the financial capacity of the Company grows, evaluate opportunities for accretive project or corporate acquisitions.
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