australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia

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AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 Western Areas NL is carrying out a bankable feasibility study (BFS) on its proposed $70 million development of the Forrestania nickel project, and proposes to be in production by the end of 2005. The company was considering a 500 000 tpa mining and processing operation involving five mines and a concentrator, producing about 12 000 tpa of contained nickel for a mine life of six years. The BFS is expected to be completed in July 2004 In April 2003, Sally Malay Mining Ltd commenced construction at its Sally Malay nickel project following the securing of a $52 million loan in mid-March and obtaining all the necessary environmental approvals. The ore will be treated using conventional technology to produce a bulk Ni-Cu-Co concentrate, which will be exported through Wyndham to be treated at the Jinchuan Group Ltd smelter-refinery complex in China. Sally Malay Mining Ltd expects the mine to produce 344 500 t of bulk concentrate containing 45 600 t of nickel, 21 750 t of copper, and 2250 t of cobalt over a 5.5 year mine life. The first concentrate was shipped to Jinchuan, China in September 2004. Reassessment of the Radio Hill mine by Fox Resources Ltd has shown that, with minimal new development, up to 751 000 t of ore at 0.8% Ni, 1.0% Cu and 0.05% Co from the disseminated sulphide zones could be mined economically using the existing decline, with an additional 107 000 t of ore at 0.9% Ni and 1.1% Cu mined by open pit from B2 orebody. These resources represent a mine life of about four years using the Radio Hill plant with its current production capacity of 220 000 tpa. Mining re-started at Radio Hill in June 2004 and the first shipment of nickel and copper concentrate was exported to China in late August 2004. MPI Mines Ltd plans to commence open cut mining at the Black Swan deposit by the end of 2004. The company plans to do this in two phases. Phase one involves mining 450 000 tpa for 2500 t of nickel-in-concentrate and only requires a minimal upgrade to the existing milling and treatment facility. Commissioning of this phase utilising existing mill infrastructure is scheduled for the third quarter 2004. Phase two involves mining 1 Mt of ore per year, resulting in production of over 5000 t of nickel-in-concentrate. This phase will require increasing the power capacity, the provision of more water and upgrading the mill capacity. MPI Mines Ltd’s feasibility study for a proposed 250 000 tpa underground operation at Wedgetail (Honeymoon Well project) producing 10 000 tpa of nickel-in-concentrate is due for completion by the end of July 2004 with first production commencing in late 2005. The company indicated that an additional 20 000 tpa of contained nickel could be produced from the open cut mining and processing of around 4 Mtpa of disseminated sulphides grading 0.75% Ni. This disseminated sulphide material has low iron to magnesium ratio but relatively high arsenic content and, therefore is unsuitable as feedstock for the conventional smelting process. MPI Mines Ltd is considering a lowpressure sulphide leaching process using the Cawse laterite facility. Independence Gold NL has increased reserves at its Long project to 688 000 t grading 4% Ni for 27 300 t of contained nickel metal. Resources now total 1.37 Mt at 6% Ni for 82 700 t of nickel metal. Another 27 000 t of contained nickel occurs in pillars but is not included in the resource estimates. 56 Australian Mines Ltd who acquired the Blair nickel mine from Blair Nickel Mine PL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of McMahons Holdings, commenced underground development work in December. Ore production is expected to start during the March quarter 2004 with the concentrates being toll-treated at WMC Resources Kalgoorlie smelter. Titan Resources NL commenced pre-strip mining in early 2004 at its Armstrong deposit, which has reported resources of 465 000 t grading 2.12% Ni. The ore is to be toll-treated at WMC Resources nickel smelter. Underground operations will commence after the completion of the open pit. Mincor Resources NL is to develop the Redross mine, 70 km south of Kambalda, WA, during 2004, at a cost of about $11 million. The mine has a combined indicated and inferred resource of 0.345 Mt at 5.01% Ni. Allegiance Mining NL has received environmental approval for development work at its Avebury nickel deposit, west of Zeehan in Tasmania. In March 2004, construction commenced on the access
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 road and 800 m long underground decline to enable bulk sampling and geotechnical assessment of the Viking and North Avebury deposits. An indicative feasibility study of the Avebury project demonstrated that an annual throughput of 400 ktpa for an initial period of two-to-three years producing about 5000 t annually of nickel-in-concentrate was commercially viable. Australia’s lateritic operations at Cawse and Murrin Murrin continued to experience mixed success throughout 2003. Minara Resources Ltd’s (formerly Anaconda Nickel Ltd) Murrin Murrin operation produced 27 890 t of nickel in 2003 representing on average 62% of the plant capacity (45 ktpa of nickel). The operation was expected to achieve its production capacity by the end of 2004. The laterite resources of the former Bulong project, owned by Preston Resources Ltd which went into receivership in 2002, were sold to Heron Resources Ltd. Negotiations were proceeding with a large international player to purchase the plant and equipment. BHP Billiton has developed a proprietary atmospheric leach processes to be used on its Ravensthorpe laterite nickel project, WA. The Enhanced Pressure Acid Leaching (EPAL) hydrometallurgical process is a combination of pressure acid leach and atmospheric leach which produces a mixed nickel and cobalt hydroxide intermediate product (MHP). BHP Billiton plans to produce MHP containing up to 50 000 tpa of nickel and 1400 tpa of cobalt at Ravensthorpe that will be shipped through the Port of Esperance to Townsville, Queensland, for final refining at the QNI Yabulu refinery, with production commencing late 2007. Niobium Niobium is a by-product of tantalum mining at the Greenbushes operations in Western Australia. Niobium has traditionally been used in alloys by the steel and aerospace industries, however the use of niobium-titanium alloy wire in Magnetic Resonance Imaging has also created a niche for niobium in the medical industry. Resources Australia’s EDR of niobium increased dramatically from 29 kt in 2002 to 194 kt in 2003. This was a result of increased resources at Greenbushes and at the Brockman rare earth deposit in Western Australia. Most of Australia’s EDR of niobium resources occur in Western Australia with minor resources in New South Wales. Subeconomic resources decreased to 115 kt Nb due to a reclassification of resources at the Greenbushes deposit. Inferred resources also decreased, due to reclassification, to 1838 kt Nb. Exploration Exploration data for niobium are not available. Production The USGS report an estimated 250 t of production from Australia in 2003 (compared with 290 t in 2002). This production figure is an estimate of niobium in tantalum concentrates shipped from the Greenbushes operations. Separate concentrates of niobium are not produced at Greenbushes. 57 World Ranking World EDR is estimated at 4604 kt of which Brazil has 4300 kt. Australia has the second largest EDR with 194 kt followed by Canada with 110 kt. World production in 2003, based on USGS estimates, is 29 800 t Nb of which 26 000 t came from Brazil and 3400 t from Canada.
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australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia

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