Karara Iron Ore Kine, Australia

Karara Iron Ore Kine, Australia

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Key Data
Location
Western Australia
Ownership
Gindalbie Metals and Ansteel
Geology type
Magnetite banded ironstone formation
Mine life
More than 30 years
Reserves
Indicated reserves of1417Mt, Inferred reserves of 437Mt
Production start date
2011

Full specifications

The Karara mine is located in Western Australia, approximately 225km east of the Geraldton Port. The mine is one of the few magnetite projects currently under development in Australia. It forms part of the development of a Mungada haematite project located approximately 15km from the Karara magnetite deposit. The project is jointly owned by Gindalbie Metals and Ansteel, a major Chinese steel and iron ore company.

The mine will begin production in 2011. Economic and technical viability of the mine was established in a bankable feasibility study conducted in September 2007. Exploration and resource definition drilling of the mine has also been completed.



Reserves

The Karara mine contains approximately 1.4 billion metric tons of recoverable and over two billion tons of estimated reserves.

Indicated reserves in the magnetite phase of the project total 1,417Mt at 35.5% of Fe, 43.2% SiO2, 1.25% Al2O3, 0.09% P and -0.58% LOI. Inferred reserves total 437Mt at 35.1% of Fe, 43.9% SiO2, 1.44% Al2O3, 0.09% P and -0.71% LOI.

Geology

The Karara mine is hosted within the Yalgoo-Singleton Archaean greenstone belt. The belt is characterised by a huge magnetite banded ironstone formation (BIF) unit that extends over a strike length of more than 3km.
"The Karara mine is located in Western Australia, approximately 225km east of the Geraldton Port."

The western branch of the unit is over 400m wide and more than 350m deep. The eastern limb is comparatively narrower and outcrops as a chain of 100m-wide haematite-enriched hills along an adjacent north-south trending fault.

The BIFs create a series of isolated peaks and ridges in an otherwise plain landscape. Iron is hosted within the Windanning Formation as a sequence of several jasperlitic BIF and grey-white chert units that lay above the Gabanintha Formation. The deposit is up to 150m thick and is substantially dominated by interbedded layers of shales and BIF. Dolerite and kaolinite clays are also found in irregular areas within the deposit.

Production

The mine will produce annually in excess of 30Mt of iron products over its life of more than 30 years. Production will be carried out in a phased manner. Phase I, scheduled for the first half of 2011, will produce 2Mt of haematite per annum. Phase II will begin in August 2011 and will include the production of around 8Mt per annum.

Mining

The mine will be mined through conventional open-pit methods including drilling, blasting, loading and haulage. The open-cast pit will be nearly 3,400m long, 1,300m wide and 300m deep. The pit will be gradually stripped of topsoil and overburden to get access to the ore. Drilling will be carried out using hydraulic hammer drills. Mixed explosives will be supplied directly to the drill holes via purpose-built trucks.
"The mine will be mined through conventional open-pit methods including drilling, blasting, loading and haulage."

Blasting will be carried out using ammonium nitrate-based explosives. To support a mining rate of nearly 45Mt/y, explosives in the order of 12kt/y will be used. Excavated ore and waste will be loaded using hydraulic excavators into rear dump off-highway haul trucks. Loading will be carried out on 4m benches. Haul trucks will transport the loaded ore along the pit ramp directly to the processing plant.

The first year of mining will largely oversee removal of overburden and mineralised waste rock with minimum ore excavation. Following this, magnetite ore will be excavated simultaneously from different depths within the pit. The pit will be gradually extended northwards. To optimise the development of the pit and ensure that ores of consistent grade are sent to the processing plant, mining will take place at several levels and in assorted ore grades.

Once operational, mining will take place throughout the day. The mine will have a 0.5:1 waste to ore stripping ratio.

Processing

The ore will be processed in an on-site facility. Processing will include crushing, grinding, magnetic separation, reverse flotation and thickening to produce 12Mt/y of magnetite concentrate. Approximately 85% of ore will be delivered to the crusher. The remaining 15% will be stockpiled in a ROM pad for subsequent crushing.

Around 18Mt of tailings produced from the processing will be stored in an on-site dry-stack tailings storage facility. Waste rock will be stored in a waste rock dump adjacent to the pit.

Karara Iron Ore Kine, Australia Reviewed by NajlA On Sunday, April 4, 2010, at 10:10 PM Rating: 5
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