Aurelia’s Great Cobar–Peak expansion: integrated flowsheet notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Aurelia Metals is advancing the high-grade Great Cobar copper–gold project in the Cobar Basin while expanding its Peak processing plant to lift throughput capacity by up to 50 per cent. Great Cobar is targeting first production in the 2027–28 financial year, feeding copper–gold ore into the upgraded Peak concentrator rather than building a standalone plant. The integrated flowsheet and higher milling rate will be central to mine planning, tailings storage design and long-term utilisation of existing underground infrastructure at Peak.
Technical Brief
- Tailings storage planning must accommodate higher combined tonnage and potentially different Great Cobar ore geochemistry.
- Mine scheduling at Great Cobar will be constrained by Peak’s upgraded milling rate and campaign blending requirements.
Our Take
Aurelia Metals’ recent outperformance in FY26 gold and copper production in our database suggests the 50 per cent lift in Peak processing plant capacity at Great Cobar is being timed off a stronger cash-flow base, which can de-risk execution through FY28.
The earn-in over additional Cobar Basin ground with Legacy Minerals, noted in our June 2026 coverage, indicates Aurelia is positioning Great Cobar and the Peak plant as a regional hub rather than a single-asset circuit, which can improve unit costs and exploration optionality around the plant.
With Steve Badenhorst (ex-Rio Tinto) due to take over as MD/CEO in late 2026, governance of the Great Cobar copper-gold build-out in Australia will likely reflect a more major-miner style project discipline, which is relevant as copper-gold projects dominate a large share of our 604 keyword-matched pieces.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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