PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior iron-ore developer Brockman Mining on Thursday unveiled plans for an initial small-scale mining operation at its Marillana project, in the Pilbara.

The company told shareholders that it had entered into a nonbinding heads of agreement with logistical services provider Qube to facilitate an infrastructure solution for a 2.5-million-tonne-a-year operation, with an initial mine life of five years.

Subject to the completion of final feasibility studies and the receipt of the required approvals, Brockman and Qube would enter into a logistics service agreement for the transport and export of Marillana product through the Utah port facility.

Brockman had been investigating the potential development for a small-scale operation at Marillana to complement the company’s longer-term plan for a 20-million-tonne-a-year operation based on rail haulage and a new, larger capacity port development.

The company told shareholders on Thursday that the new small-scale development related only to a small portion of the total ore reserves at Marillana, which had been optimised for the first five years of the project.

The company was hoping to mine about 29.4-million tonnes of ore and 8.9-million tonnes of waste over the initial five-year period, with the ore beneficiated to produce 2.5-million tonnes a year of final product grading between 60.5% iron and 61.5% iron.

Brockman was targeting a construction start during the first quarter of 2017, with commissioning expected to take place later that same year.

“As well as generating cash flows for the company, the Maverick project will also establish Brockman and the high-quality Marillana product in the marketplace, and will be a major step forward in commercialising the infrastructure solution for a larger-scale operation at Marillana,” said CEO Colin Paterson.

He noted that a key enabler of the Qube agreement was the state government’s recent decision to approve the use of performance based standard road trains on roads in the Pilbara, which have resulted in significant cost savings in road haulage and resulted in fewer vehicle movements on the state’s roads.