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Australia

Broken Hill Operation

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Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Zinc
  • Lead
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Longhole open stoping
  • Pillar extraction
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SnapshotThe Broken Hill Operations are principally comprised of three separate underground mining areas: Southern Operations; Potosi Operations; and North Mine. Broken Hill North Mine was placed under care and maintenance in 2023.

Perilya Ltd. has not reported production data regularly since it was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange in 2013.

On Sept. 27, 2023, Hydrostor and Perilya have entered into a binding agreement to leverage the existing mining assets at Perilya’s Potosi Mine in Broken Hill to support the construction of the Silver City Energy Storage (SCES) Project.

The Silver City Energy Storage (“Silver City”) Project is an Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage project capable of 200 MW generation for 8 hours duration (1600MWh). Reserve capacity of 250MWh is set aside to provide backup power during network outages. It will act as an emission-free long-term grid reliability solution for Broken Hill.
Related Asset

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co.,Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Perilya Broken Hill Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Perilya Limited and is the entity which owns and operates the mining operations based in Broken Hill in New South Wales.

Perilya is owned by Zhongjin Lingnan Mining (HK) Company Limited of Hong Kong. It bought the remaining 48% of the shares that it did not already own in December 2013, and de-listed Perilya from the Australian Stock Exchange. Zhongjin Lingnan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co., Limited, China, which is 39.23% owned by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange.

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Deposit type

  • VMS

Summary:

The Broken Hill deposit lies within the Broken Hill Group of the Palaeoproterozoic Willyama Supergroup and consists of nine separate but closely related orebodies that are stacked within a single stratigraphic package in the Hores Gneiss of the Broken Hill Group.

The impression that the Broken Hill orebodies are all massive sulphides with little else has long been dispelled.

Not only can different styles of mineralisation be identified but the information also gives valuable insights into the ways the deposit has responded to deformation and also to the predeformation characteristics of the deposit and therefore its genesis.

Massive sulphides form only a minor part of each orebody and are most common in deformed regions of the lenses. Sulphide-rich mineralisation is more often coarsely banded by variations in gangue mineral and sulphide abundance. Each orebody contains a high percentage of gangue minerals, including primary calcite, calcium or manganese pyroxenoids or pyroxenes, or quartz, that are distributed through the mineralisation as discrete bands, layers and stratigraphic horizons. Sphalerite (marrnatite) is the dominant sulphide constituent of all ore lenses and the percentage of galena diminishes in each orebody from 3L to BL.

The Broken Hill Line of Lode is hosted by the upper Broken Hill Group of the Willyama Supergroup. The Line of Lode is an approximately 9.5km long, northeast – southwest striking, approximately boomerang-shaped orebody, with the “arms” plunging to depth. The Line of Lode consists of five major ore lenses (1, 2, 3, A and B Lenses) surrounded by a zone of disseminated mineralisation referred to as the C Lens. Typically, the upper lenses (2 and 3 Lenses) are lead rich, while the lower lenses (1, A and B Lenses) are zinc rich.

The geological setting of the North Mine is broadly similar to the rest of the Line of Lode, with each of the lenses occurring within the Lode. Mineralisation within the North Mine is typically associated with:
• Sphalerite (zinc sulphide);
• Galena (lead sulphide) with variable silver; and
• Tetrahedrite (copper antimony sulfosalt) with silver.

Typical combined grades of lead and zinc range from 5% to 40% within the high-grade zones, with silver grades between 50g/t and 400g/t in the galena rich lenses.

In November 2021, SKR undertook further mineralogical assessment of soils and materials at the Mine Site. SKR (2022) identified sulphur bearing minerals comprising the following.

• Sulfides – sphalerite and galena;
• Sulfates – anglesite, gypsum and Szomolonkite/gunningite; and
• Hydroxysulfates – jarosite, beaverite and beaudanite.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

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Processing

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Production

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Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

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Aerial view:

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