A revived Mount Lyell mine would need 250-300 workers and could operate for decades, the prospective new owner says.
"There's an opportunity for longevity here," New Century Resources managing director Patrick Walta said.
He said if the company could launch a sustainable operation at the veteran Queenstown copper mine, it would bring bring economic and environmental benefits and "the mineral endowment is going to provide a multi-decade life".
"When we do (get it right), there's no reason why Mount Lyell can't become another jewel in the West Coast again
"It's got the opportunity for a new life under a different strategy."
The mine has been on care and maintenance since 2014, following the deaths of three workers in two separate incidents.
New Century recently entered a two-year option agreement with a subsidiary of Mount Lyell's international owner, Vedanta Resources, for potential acquisition of the mine.
New Century will use that time to evaluate the potential for restarting operations, including mining, tailings reprocessing and recovering some of the metals that heavily polluted local waterways because of practices in the mine's earlier decades, leading to Tasmania's biggest environmental disaster.
"The environmental management, I think, is going to be a much happier story as the mine operates, and it should operate for the long term," Mr Walta said.
New Century said a potential accelerated restart via tailing reprocessing was possible, but Mr Walta said actual mining might be the first stage.
Most or all of the 23 current Copper Mines of Tasmania employees at the mine are staying on, but their number would need to grow exponentially if mining was to resume.
"This mine is going need 250-300 people, simple as that," Mr Walta said.
"That's the size of an employee base you need to run a mine of this scale."
He said an even bigger number might be needed for a construction period.
New Century said the Mount Lyell mineral resources included 1.1 million tonnes of "green" copper - as in copper produced using renewable energy - and about one million ounces of gold.
Tasmanian Resources Minister Guy Barnett said global copper prices were strong and he expected them to remain so.
"New Century have a very positive track record of projects that deliver benefits for the environment and the economy," he said.
Mr Barnett noted mining's strong contribution to Tasmania's export revenues.
"The mining and mineral processing industry is delivering big-time for the Tasmanian economy," he said.
According to state Treasury analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, non-ferrous metals and metallic ores and metal scraps accounted for 64.3 per cent of the total value of Tasmanian merchandise exports sent overseas in the year to September.
The sector's annual export value totalled about $2.715 billion, and had increased by about $900 million compared with the previous year.
Mr Barnett said the industry paid the state about $90 million in royalties in the past two years.
Sean Ford
The Advocate Newspaper, Tasmania. Business, economics, politics, crime.
The Advocate Newspaper, Tasmania. Business, economics, politics, crime.
