By Salini Krishnan
Ausenco has won the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract for Rex Minerals’ Hillside copper-gold project in South Australia, marking a significant step for one of Australia’s larger undeveloped copper assets as it moves toward execution.
The award puts Ausenco at the center of delivering a planned 8 million tonne per year processing plant for the Yorke Peninsula project, which is designed around a 13-year mine life. For operators and investors, the contract is notable not only because it advances Hillside’s development pathway, but also because it brings in a contractor with a long track record in large-scale copper concentrator design and delivery.
Hillside has been positioned by Rex Minerals as a long-life copper-gold development with the scale to become an important South Australian operation. The project is expected to process 8 Mt/y of ore, producing copper concentrate with gold by-product credits over an initial mine life of 13 years. Those fundamentals place it in a category that can matter both regionally and in the broader copper supply pipeline, particularly as demand expectations remain tied to electrification, grid investment and energy transition buildouts.
Ausenco’s role is likely to draw particular industry attention because the company has established itself as a major EPCM and engineering player in copper processing flowsheets globally. The group is widely recognized for its work on concentrators and mineral processing plants across the Americas, Australia, Africa and other mining jurisdictions, with experience spanning study phases through to commissioning and operational optimization. In practice, that kind of copper concentrator expertise can influence plant recoveries, throughput reliability, water and energy performance, and overall capital efficiency.
For Hillside, the emphasis on concentrator design is especially relevant. In copper-gold projects, front-end engineering decisions often shape project economics for years after first production. Ore characteristics, grinding circuit configuration, flotation design, tailings strategy and infrastructure integration can all affect whether a plant consistently delivers nameplate performance. Bringing in a contractor with a strong copper concentrator background may help reduce execution risk as the project moves through detailed engineering and construction planning.
The contract also adds momentum to South Australia’s copper development story. The state remains one of Australia’s most important copper jurisdictions, supported by established mining regulation, export infrastructure and a pipeline of both producing and development-stage assets. Hillside’s progress comes at a time when governments and market participants are looking more closely at how new copper supply can be brought online in stable jurisdictions.
That said, major mine developments still face the usual set of risks. For Hillside, key watchpoints include final capital costs, construction scheduling, permitting and environmental compliance, contractor performance, inflation in labor and materials, and the broader copper price environment by the time the project reaches production. Large concentrator builds also require careful management of commissioning risk, particularly where throughput ramp-up and metallurgical performance are central to value creation.
Still, the EPCM award is a meaningful milestone. It signals that Hillside is moving further along the development curve and that Rex Minerals is leaning on a contractor with recognized strengths in copper process plant execution. With an 8 Mt/y design and a 13-year mine life, Hillside stands out as a project worth tracking in Australia’s next wave of copper-gold development.
Hillside project snapshot
| Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project | Hillside copper-gold project |
| Owner | Rex Minerals |
| Location | South Australia |
| EPCM contractor | Ausenco |
| Planned plant throughput | 8 Mt/y |
| Initial mine life | 13 years |
| Commodity focus | Copper with gold by-product |
