Members of the community were given an update on Aurelia Metals’ current activities in the Cobar region as well as their plans for the future at a community meeting last Wednesday at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club.
The session focused on operational performance, major projects, future exploration, community initiatives and also outlined the company’s ongoing commitments to the Cobar community.
Aurelia’s General Manager of the Cobar Region, Angus Wyllie gave an operational update outlining the company’s continued improvements in productivity and performance at its Peak and Federation Operations.
Angus spoke about the operation’s steady increases in mining development and ore production, their strong progress in ramping up the Federation Mine and continued efficiency improvements and stable operating costs across the business.
His update highlighted key developments that will support future production including the ongoing ramp-up at Federation, with successful drilling programs and multiple milestones that have been achieved on schedule.
Angus also spoke about the development works continuing at Great Cobar, including the decline progress and upcoming ventilation infrastructure.
The presentation also covered the new water pipeline, work being done to advance the Peak Processing Plant upgrades, and the strong results from the company’s regional exploration programs, which continue to build confidence in long-term exploration assets.
This included increases to the Group Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates, particularly in copper, supporting an extended production outlook.
“The mine has been there for 30 years and will be there for 30 more. We plan to be here for a very long time to come,” Angus said.
Staff also outlined their plans to update the community with SMS blasting notifications with community members able to subscribe to text messages to receive alerts for blasting at the New Cobar operation.
Casey Piggott from Peak’s HR department spoke about a range of workforce initiatives and said the company has a focus on building the residential workforce, which currently sits at 67 per cent.
Casey outlined allowances and relocation incentives that are being offered to staff and reported four employees have taken up the Home Purchase Scheme to purchase a property in Cobar. Casey said when recruiting, accommodation is one of their biggest challenges and so an internal taskforce has been established to look at solutions to Cobar’s accommodation shortage.
She also spoke about three new apprenticeships and two school-based traineeships the company is offering in 2026.
Environmental Field Technician Molly Barraclough spoke about the success of the first year of the Community Hub located in Marshall Street.
Molly also spoke about Aurelia’s contributions and sponsorships to the Cobar community which have totalled more $660,000 over the past five years to local schools, sports groups, festivals, community events and wellbeing programs.
Recent donation recipients included: the Running On Empty Festival, Festival of the Miners Ghost, Nymagee Flower Show, St John’s School Bazaar, Cobar High School Opera Express, Wings4kidz and the Macquarie Home Stay facility.
At last week’s meeting representatives of some of the beneficiary groups spoke about how Aurelia’s donations had helped their organisations, including Cobar Swimming Club, who advised that with Aurelia’s donation, they were able to offer half price registrations this season which resulted in their membership almost doubling
