DEVELOPMENT

Snapper Deposit

The Snapper Deposit lies approximately 15 kms from the Ginkgo Mine and will be developed as a production expansion on the Ginkgo Mine. Development of the Snapper Deposit has been progressing in parallel with the Company’s other developments since 2003, resulting in:

• Upgrade to Reserve status (at a strong 90% conversion rate from Resource status,   Ginkgo conversion rate was 81.26%)
• Completion of detailed prefeasibility studies
• Declaration by the NSW Government as a project of state significance
• Issuing of Director General’s Guidelines for Environmental Assessment
• Submission of final Environmental Assessment document
• Completion of all baseline studies.

The Snapper Ore Reserve is 5.9 Mt (Ginkgo 5.4 Mt) and has almost double the head grade of Ginkgo. Production from the Ginkgo and Snapper Mines will maintain, with even better margins (due to head grade), the base load production for the Murray Basin operations at an annual processing rate of 600,000 tonnes per annum of Heavy Mineral Concentrate (HMC) over the next twenty years. Further production expansions will be delivered through the opening of further mines.

Fundamental infrastructure necessary for the long term Murray Basin operations has already been constructed, lowering the risk of subsequent developments. Snapper requires only 15 km of road and 10 km of powerline construction. A total of 67 km and 127 km, respectively, have already been built. There is a very large saline acquifer which Bemax’s bores tap into to easily supply all water requirements for both the Ginkgo and Snapper Mines. Both operations are dredge mining operations in the water table. 

Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant

215 km from the Ginkgo mine is the Broken Hill mineral seperation plant, which has direct access to high capacity railway from Broken Hill to Port Adelaide for shipping. Broken Hill is an established mining centre with excellent services (eg transportation and air services) and infrastructure (eg power, roads & rail). As a new facility this plant operates with high processing availability.

Gwindinup Project

The Gwindinup Project is approximately 30 kilometres south of the Bunbury Mineral Separation Plant and comprises Gwindinup North and South deposits. Adjacent to the Gwindinup Project are the Happy Valley North and Happy Valley South deposits, which will be mined as an extension to the Gwindinup Project.

The Gwindinup North and South deposits have been fully approved for mining with mining having commenced in the first quarter of 2008. Happy Valley deposit approval applications have been lodged and are well into the approval process. An existing wet plant will be used for the project and material will be treated in the Bunbury Mineral Separation Plant. The Gwindinup and Happy Valley deposits contain 2.9 Mt of heavy mineral. The Gwindinup Project and Happy Valley extension has an approximate nine year mine life.