Browns polymetallic ore deposit "sulfide" resources. The oxide resources consist of supergene or weathered sulfide ore where the ore mineralogy is dominated by metal oxides, hydroxides, clays and carbonates after the original sulfide mineralogy. The Browns deposit is currently being developed as a major base metals mine by Compass Resources NL, an Australian public company, in joint venture with Hunan Nonferrous Metals Corporation, a Chinese government company. The mine is due to be complete in August 2008, after suffering cost escalation and construction delays, and will produce 15,000 tonnes of copper, 4,000 tonnes of cobalt and 4,000 tonnes of nickel per annum, with a
Neuil mine by sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. The ore therefore belongs to the mineralisation type "sphalerite-pyrite-galena-chalcopyrite". A radiometric lead isotope study on the basement lodes yielded an age of 300 to 250 million years BP (Lougnon, J. et al. 1974). The lodes belong clearly to a late Variscan phase and were definitely formed after the intrusion of the Piégut-Pluviers Granodiorite into the paragneisses during the late Pennsylvanian (elsewhere lodes can be found that also formed within the granodiorite). Yet the metal impregnation is most likely genetically related to the granodiorite. The spatial arrangement of the lodes points towards local southeasterly extension within