Broken Hill Mines has reported its strongest operational performance since acquiring the historic Rasp mine in New South Wales, driven by record quarterly ore throughput and the long-awaited restart of the Pinnacles mine.
For the June quarter, BHM processed a record 119,320 tonnes of ore, up 3.2 per cent on the previous quarter and marking the highest processing volume seen at the site since mid-2020.
The strong operational momentum yielded 95,787 ounces of silver, representing a massive 21.8 per cent jump quarter-on-quarter and BHM’s best silver output since late 2022.
Zinc production also rose 7 per cent to 3,330 tonnes, hitting its highest level since March 2025, while lead production dipped slightly by 3.9 per cent to 2,376 tonnes.
BHM credited its feed grade enhancement strategy for the surging figures, boosted by high-grade material from the Main Lode orebody and the first fresh ore feed from the nearby Pinnacles mine, which restarted in late June for the first time since 2021.
The restart of Pinnacles is central to BHM’s multi-source strategy to finally unlock the latent capacity of the 750,000 tonnes-per-annum (tpa) Rasp processing plant, located just 15 kilometres away.
Initial efforts at Pinnacles are targeting up to 50,000 tonnes of high-grade ore sitting in the floor of the Edwards Open Pit, which was abruptly left unmined when the Covid-19 pandemic halted operations.
To sustain this growth, BHM has approved funding for a new tailings dewatering facility designed to clear out processing bottlenecks and support a full ramp-up to the plant’s 750,000tpa nameplate capacity.
Moving forward, BHM is planning progressive expansion of the open pit into the Consols South, Fishers, Rope Shaft and Junction areas, targeting existing high-grade resources and newly expanded mineralisation zones that have been shown through BHM drilling results to date.
BHM also sees strong potential for high grade underground operations to be developed at Pinnacles.
The company is currently undertaking assessment of this potential to form an additional ore feed for the Rasp Processing Plant.
