Constellation project and NSW copper super‑producer push: key notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
New South Wales has approved the Constellation critical minerals and high‑tech metals project near Cobar, positioning the state to grow copper output towards “super‑producer” scale alongside existing long‑life operations in the Cobar Basin. The project targets copper, gold and associated critical minerals, leveraging established regional infrastructure and brownfields mining services to accelerate development. For geotechnical and mining teams, the approval signals a pipeline of new underground and open‑pit work in highly altered, structurally complex ore systems typical of central NSW.
Technical Brief
- Regulatory sign‑off at this stage typically precedes detailed feasibility, geotechnical modelling and mine design optimisation for complex lode systems.
Our Take
Copper-linked ‘critical minerals’ stories are a small subset of the 75 keyword-matched pieces in our database, so a Cobar, NSW project framed explicitly around both critical minerals and high-tech metals signals that state planners are positioning copper alongside battery and tech metals rather than as a standalone base metal.
Within the 1585 tag-matched Projects and Contract Award items, relatively few are in inland NSW compared with WA and Queensland, suggesting that a Cobar-based Constellation project could help rebalance Australian greenfield investment attention towards the central and eastern states.
For operators in Cobar, being part of the 835 Mining stories tied to critical minerals and high-tech metals implies stronger competition for skilled labour and services, but also a better case for shared infrastructure and processing hubs that can handle both copper and other high-tech feedstocks in New South Wales.
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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