Business
23 July, 2025
Glencore-Austral sign MOU over Lady Loretta lease
Austral will take over the lease from Glencore later this year, subject to approvals.
Mining giant Glencore says it is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Austral Resources to facilitate the acquisition of its Lady Loretta lease.
As first reported by North West Weekly, the agreement will enable Austral to extract additional copper resources from its existing Lady Annie Project tenement that adjoins Glencore’s Lady Loretta mining lease boundary.
Glencore’s Lady Loretta underground zinc mine will continue to operate until its original planned closure date of December this year.
“We are pleased to continue playing a pivotal role in facilitating the development of new copper resources in North West Queensland and supporting further local economic development across the region,” said Troy Wilson, interim chief operating officer of Glencore Metals Australia.
“Glencore was very mindful of how the Lady Loretta lease could be used to assist Austral in recovering additional copper mineral resources and was happy to work together to reach an agreement.
“This agreement highlights Glencore’s commitment to the advancement of mineral resources in North West Queensland.”
In a statement, Austral chairman David Newling said: “We are extremely excited with the acquisition of Lady Loretta and the strongly beneficial impact it could have as a part of our long-term copper production profile.
“Lady Loretta is an eminently sensible acquisition for us, given its tenements and ours abut, and that it enables a meaningful extension of copper mining from our Lady Annie deposit, which will support production from our Mt Kelly SX-EW processing facility.
“Lady Loretta, together with our own Mt Kelly processing plant and recently acquired Rocklands project and processing plant from Copper Resources Australia Limited reveal our ambition to consolidate sensible parts of the Mt Isa and Cloncurry copper region. We are of the belief that many of the regional assets would strongly profit from the benefits that consolidation can bring, such as blended mining and processing strategies, along with the reduced cost profile that a larger organisation can bring.”
Glencore said it would also work with Austral and others to explore options to utilise some of the existing Lady Loretta infrastructure to support other regional developments.
North West Weekly understands that the accommodation village at Lady Loretta, which was originally promised to another miner, will now end up in the hands of Austral.
