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All workers other than those required for the care and maintenance works have been stood down without pay as at the close of business March 24.

According to CTM it is putting together a plan to protect the health of its workers and to ensure normal operations resume.

CTM told the Australian Securities Exchange it was unsure about timelines due to the constantly changing state and federal guidelines, however, it expected its restarted operations would consist of the Dry River South mine only with the Mount Garnet processing plant operating on a campaign processing schedule.

The Mount Garnet underground operation, created by Kagara, is about 200,000 tonnes per annum with the ore processed at the adjacent Mount Garnet plant.

Dry River South is the underground portion of the old Surveyor mine, also developed by Kagara.

That mine is operating at about 300,000tpa with the ore also processed at Mount Garnet.

The Mount Garnet plant operates on grid power and can process up to 1 million tonnes per annum of ore.

It operates two circuits. One is a 500,000tpa polymetallic circuit to process zinc, copper and lead ores and the other is a 500,000tpa supergene copper circuit.

The plant produces separate copper, zinc and lead concentrates with silver and gold credits.

CTM had hoped to purchase the Chillagoe Base and Precious Metals Project for $53.3 million in cash.

The Chillagoe assets including the King Vol underground mine, the Mungana processing plant and the Mungana underground mine are about 140km from its Mount Garnett plant.

King Vol also produces zinc, copper and lead concentrates while Mungana, which is on care and maintenance, is a gold operation.

CTM abandoned the deal on March 23.