Austral Resources Australia Ltd. announced the commencement of mining at Anthill. This follows several months of site preparation to establish site infrastructure, mobilize plant, clear the pit areas, and prepare haul roads. The Mount Kelly processing plant refurbishment is proceeding to schedule with the crushing circuit at 70% completion and work underway at the heap leach solvent extraction plant to process Anthill ore in the second quarter of 2022.

Commencement of bulk mining at Anthill on 7 January 2022 represents a key development milestone for Austral's copper production strategy. In two short months since listing on the ASX, Austral's team of employees and contractors have safely managed the transformation of a paddock into a mine. The mining fleet was mobilized whilst the site team cleared the pit areas, established haul roads and ROM pad, installed site infrastructure, then began drilling and blasting.

Mining commenced on 7 January with one excavator and two trucks on dayshift. A second excavator and trucks will begin bulk mining this week and the operation will commence mining on both a dayshift and nightshift. Drilled and blasted volumes are well ahead of schedule with 430,000bcm ready for mining.

This should see Anthill achieve planned development tonnages by the end of January and first ore mined in April 2022. The Mount Kelly facility is being prepared to process Anthill ore from Second Quarter this year. The crushing and heap leach ore stacking circuit refurbishment is approximately 70% complete and on schedule to begin trial commissioning in late February.

Work includes conveyor belt replacement, electrical test work, structural repairs, secondary crusher rebuild, safety guarding and agglomerate relining. The electro winning circuit is being readied to increase production from the current 5tpd of copper cathode to 30tpd by mid 2022, corresponding to 10,000tpa of cathode production.