Blackthorn Resources will begin operations at its zinc mine in Burkina Faso in 2012. The mine is the Perkoa zinc mine which it holds in a joint venture with Glencore International Plc. Blackthorn Resources hopes to make the shift from a junior miner to a middle tier miner by 2014.
The Sydney based company has hopes of producing zinc in June 2012 from the Perkoa mine. The project has been revived after three years. Blackthorn Resources had shut down the high grade zinc project due to the global economic crisis.
The Chief Executive Officer of Blackthorn Resources, Scott Lowe was giving an interview in Melbourne when he said that they would also consider doing some jointly funded operations with Glencore in the area near the Perkoa zinc mine.
Currently Glencore owns 50% of the mine and Blackthorn Resources owns 40% of the venture. By June 2012 the mine should be producing 90,000 tons of contained metal. Glencore is interested in adding silver and lead production to the mine. It also wants to push up the mine’s production capacity by 40%.
In March Glencore bought a 13% stake in Blackthorn Resources which put it on a list of speculated takeovers for Glencore. Glencore gained 2.3 %to close at 385.2 pence in London trading yesterday. Blackthorn shares rose 1 % to 49.5 Australian cents in Sydney trading today. The stock has fallen 20 percent this year.