Situated 10km from Tennant Creek, Peko is a historical mine consisting 3.75 million tonnes of tailings containing magnetite, gold, copper and cobalt, plus in-ground and stockpiled gold-bearing ore.

Junior miner Elmore is developing Peko for owner ICA Mining and will operate the project in return for a management fee, a 25% equity stake and management rights, as part of a binding heads of agreement with ICA's creditors.

With the plant built, Elmore is looking to stage 1 of operations, which involve processing an in-feed of 100 tonnes per hour for 60tph of high-grade magnetite concentrate.

Peko ore is destined to travel by rail to Darwin Port on the Adelaide to Darwin rail line, however, the line has been rendered unusable after severe weather and flooding in South Australia recently.

According to Elmore, transportation of ore will begin once repairs are done and the line reopens in the coming weeks.

ICA director David McIntosh said the initial construction and start-up period had its difficulties, however, the integrity and professionalism of the Elmore board led to the issues being addressed commercially and with alacrity.

"The speed of the construction at such a remote location as the Peko site at Tennant Creek has been impressive, and the value multiplier of the board and the professionals in the company bode well for future activities onsite," he said.

"I'm looking forward to the coming years with Elmore leading the operations onsite and obtaining significant returns to all parties involved."

Elmore managing director David Mendelawitz said building a resource project was never easy, as they were complex, had lots of interdependencies and were generally in isolated areas where logistics and access to resources and working conditions were a challenge.

"Our team faced, and still faces, border challenges, local COVID related lock-downs and lock-outs, challenging labour markets, supply chain and resourcing constraints and often brutal weather conditions, yet they managed to build the majority of a plant in Western Australia and send it to the centre of Australia to complete fabrication and assembly."

Mendelawitz said the start of production at Peko would be transformational for Elmore.

"The Peko tailings project holds a significant store of value that will be unlocked, starting with this stage 1 magnetite plant, but most likely also to be aided by bolt on additions to the plant to recover gold, copper and cobalt," he said.

"During the year, as Peko hopefully settles into the hum of steady state, we will be accelerating the delivery of our next project, gold and antimony from Queensland."