Mine Web reported that the Rasp underground mine in the heart of one of Australia' most historic mining centers Broken Hill's Line of Lode should be operating by April next year.

Development of the Rasp mine on Central Mining Lease 7 is in one of the most intensely worked areas between the Perilya Limited North and South mining leases and it had a stop start scenario with the big stall being when the zinc price crashed in during the global financial crisis.

The Rasp mine is now owned by CBH Resources as a private company, taken over by Toho Zinc of Japan after a big wrestling match a few years ago with global refiner Nyrstar.

The mine bears the name of Charles Rasp, the boundary rider who in the late 1800s discovered the makings of the Broken Hill ore system that became one of the world's biggest lead, zinc and silver mining centers. Companies that evolved through mine developments at Broken Hill include BHP.

CBH Resources' manager Stephen Dennis told the Resources & Energy Symposium in Broken Hill that the decline mine was now 2.5 kilometers long into areas where early Broken Hill miners were averse to mining zinc lodes and has a further 1 kilometers to go.

The operation, being built for AUD 155 million will be producing for at least 15 years at the rate of about 65,000 tonnes of zinc and 38,000 tonnes of lead. It will also produce about 1 million ounces of silver per annum.

CBH also owns the Endeavour mine near Cobar in NSW which is producing about 720,000 tonnes per annum of ore for 82,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrates for 82,000 tonnes of zinc and 47,000 tonnes of lead in concentrates.

http://www.steelguru.com/metals_news/New_underground_metals_mine_in_Broken_Hill_to_start_next_year/207720.html