Heron Resources and its predecessor, TriAusmin, have been exploring a zinc, copper and lead venture at the Tarago district facility for more than seven years.

Last year it gained approval to extract 1.5 million tonnes of tailings and underground ore to produce 150,000 tonnes of concentrate annually, for up to 21 years.

Now Heron is taking another step. Last week it contracted engineering company, Sedgman to build a $107 million processing plant and associated works at the site.

Supporting infrastructure includes an administration complex, carpark, workshops, laboratory, water treatment and power supply. 

Managing director and CEO Wayne Taylor said he hoped construction could begin in two to three months. The plant will take 15 months to complete, with production to start soon after.

The overall project is touted to create 250 jobs during construction and 150 when operating.

The plant will be delivered in stages, aligning with mine development. It will start with tailings reprocessing and move to underground processing when ore is available.

“Drilling is about to start out there and and we’d like to think there’s a small but meaningful addition to the underground resource,” Mr Taylor said.

“The majority of the resource is in the tailings but we expect the underground resource to grow as exploration broadens.”

He said there was a “very positive” prospective reserve surrounding Woodlawn, including at the Currawang mine where 500,000 tonnes was produced annually. His ecological team has been exploring for the past 18 months.

A feasibility study for Woodlawn alone estimated 2.8m tonnes of ore reserves underground and 9.5m tonnes from reclaimed tailings.

The reserve base is predicted to last 9.3 years but the underground resource, once fully known, is expected to prolong the mine’s life.

Mr Taylor said zinc had been performing well globally, with 40,000 tonnes pulled out of the Shanghai market last week. 

“It’s a significant draw down and it augurs well,” he said.

In contrast, copper had been doing it “tougher.”

Planning has stepped up a notch over the past year.

Mr Taylor said Heron had been working with Sedgman for the past 12 months and the relationship had already achieved a reduction in projected capital expenditure 

But he was quick to stress the plant’s construction was dependent on Heron securing finance. It is trying to raise $200m ($151m of which is construction costs) and expects negotiations to be complete with debt and equity providers by June 30.

However he said Heron wouldn’t be signing the contract with Sedgman if it wasn’t confident of securing the money.

“They will have their core team involved but the majority of construction support will come from the region,” Mr Taylor said.

A community consultative committee has been meeting for some time, keeping the council and residents apprised of the project.

Heron says it is receiving “positive feedback” from the community. The company has also struck a working agreement with neighbour, Veolia Environmental Services, which operates the Woodlawn bioreactor.

Once operational the mine’s ore will be trucked to Port Kembla or Port Botany for export.

Woodlawn mine closed in 1998 when owner Denehurst went into administration, leaving hundreds out of work and owed $4.9m in entitlements. These were not paid until 2002 when waste company Collex, which had been selected by the State Government to build the Woodlawn bioreactor, paid them out.