New Century Resources Limited (NCZ) has provided an update on the progress of commissioning of the Jameson Cell within the processing plant of the Century Zinc Mine in Queensland. New Century initiated slurry commissioning of the Jameson Cell in early May 2021 following successful completion of cell refurbishment and water commissioning.

As part of the commissioning process, New Century has engaged consultants from Glencore Technologies (supplier of the Jameson Cell) and Mineralis Consultants to assist with the start-up commissioning strategy, a review and provision of staff training and the integration of the Jameson Cell into the existing processing circuit.

The slurry commissioning to date has made “solid progress,” delivering positive early results including:

• Concentrate Upgrade: Demonstrated capability for the upgrade of Jameson Cell slurry feed directly into saleable concentrate of 48%+ zinc, allowing for the option to remove zinc concentrate produced by the cell from the cleaning circuit
• Recovery Improvement: Jameson Cell commissioning to date has aided in the delivery of improved plant performance, with overall recoveries increasing over the slurry commissioning period and recently achieving a 7-day weighted average recovery of >50% for the first time in 15 months, with peak daily result of up to 53%.

The current focus of commissioning is on completing punch list items and finalising the integration of the Jameson Cell into the overall flowsheet, as well as continued optimisation of the overall performance of the plant under the upgraded flowsheet. Commissioning is scheduled to continue throughout June, with the Company to provide further updates as part of June quarterly reporting.

New Century has also recently produced its 1,000th batch of zinc concentrate, transported via its 304 km slurry pipeline to Karumba and shipped globally.