History

Like the mining industry in Australia, Perilya Limited shares a rich and proud history of determination, persistence and adaptability. Its past is etched with character-building challenges, stunning successes and most importantly, the wisdom to seize opportunities to refocus and launch forwards in this new and exciting era of Australia’s resource development.

Perilya was established in 1987.  Through a diligent approach to identifying undervalued assets, it has assembled a diverse portfolio of quality base metal operations and exploration projects.

The foundation for the company’s rapid growth came with the purchase of the Fortnum gold mine in Western Australia in 1994.

When acquired, Fortnum had ore reserves of 55,000 ounces. Over the next six years, Perilya produced 540,000 ounces of gold from the mine. This operational success generated an operating surplus of more than $70 million up to mine closure in August 2001.

In anticipation of the closure of the Fortnum Gold Mine, Perilya embarked on an aggressive evaluation and acquisition program. Broken Hill was identified as an operation that could provide Perilya with significant and sustainable cash flows with which to further grow the company.

In May 2002 the company successfully acquired the Broken Hill mine, one of the largest and most renowned zinc, lead and silver mines in the world.

The Broken Hill mine has produced over 200 million tonnes of ore in its 127 years of mining history, dating back to 1885.  The purchase of Broken Hill, from Pasminco Limited, gave Perilya a unique opportunity to further its success and achieve its objective of growing into a major mining company.

In June 2007, Perilya achieved the significant milestone of five years of successful operation at Broken Hill.  Perilya has brought a new vitality to one of Australia's premier mining operations bringing new techniques and approaches to the Broken Hill ore body, rejuvenating not only the mining operation but also the Broken Hill community.

In January 2005, Perilya acquired the Daisy Milano gold mine, southeast of Kalgoorlie.  Despite a successful first year of operationg under Perilya, extraction at Daisy Milano was suspended in March 2007 and the gold mine was put into care and maintenance while the divestment of Perilya's gold assets was finalised and the company refocused its strategy on base metals.

In August 2007, the gold assets comprising the Daisy Milano mine, and the Mount Monger, Moyagee and Honeymoon Well exploration projects were sold.

Mining operations commenced at Beltana zinc mine in March 2007, ahead of schedule and under budget.  Mining and crushing operations at Beltana (which is part of the Flinders Project) have now been completed with high grade zinc ore stockpiled for shipment to smelters in Asia.

Perilya's exploration interests include projects throughout Australia and in the state of Sabah in Malaysia.

 

Presently, Perilya is investing substantially in the development of its three major projects located in the Broken Hill, Mt Isa and Flinders regions as well as exploration in the surrounding tenements.

The company is expanding its operations at the iconic Broken Hill mine through the development of an exploration decline at Potosi, re-developing the North Mine via a development decline, conducting an open pit feasibility study into the Flying Doctor deposit and conducting exploration within a 10 kilometre radius of the concentrator.