Highlands, which owns a 20% interest in the joint venture (JV) project, told shareholders that partner PanAust had finalised the scope of an updated feasibility study for Frieda River, incorporating significant changes to the 2016 study.

PanAust noted that the revised scope of the project supported a mine life of more than 30 years, and greater extraction of the extensive mineral resource of the project, by leveraging third-party shared-use infrastructure.

A 2016 feasibility study estimated that the Frieda River project could produce 175 000 t/y of copper and 250 000 oz/y of gold over 17 years, based on a large-scale openpit mining operation, that would cost some $3.6-billion to develop.