Name of the Project
Boonanarring and Atlas mineral sands project.

Location
North Perth basin, Western Australia.

Client
Image Resources.

Project Description
The Boonanarring and Atlas deposits form part of Image Resources’ North Perth Basin mineral sands project, which represents one of the highest-grade mineral sands resources under evaluation worldwide.

Boonanarring has current reserves of 20-million tonnes grading 7.2% heavy minerals (HM). Atlas has total reserves of 9.5-million tonnes grading 8.1% HM.

A bankable feasibility study (BFS) on the project has proposed mining the Boonanarring deposit first using conventional, dry and openpit mining techniques to extract the ore, and standard gravity separation in a wet concentration plant (WCP) to recover the contained HM into a heavy minerals concentrate (HMC) for sale. The HMC will be transported by road to a storage facility at Bunbury, where it will be loaded onto ships and transported in bulk to China.

The Boonanarring mining schedule has been based on average mining rates of up to 3.7-million tonnes a year of ore to a slurry mining unit and three-million tonnes of rougher head feed at the WCP. Mining and related ancillary activities will be conducted by a mining contractor. Once mining at Boonanarring has been completed, the WCP will be relocated to the Atlas deposit. Mining at Atlas will also be conducted using dry, opencut mining techniques. Over the life of the current ore reserves at Boonanarring, the HMC is expected to contain an estimated 610 000 t of ilmenite, 310 000 t of zircon, 25 000 t of rutile and 14 000 t of leucoxene.

At Atlas, which is at the prefeasibility study (PFS) stage, the BFS envisages production of about 210 000 t/y of HMC for 711 000 t/y over the life-of-mine. Over the life of the current ore reserves at Atlas, the HMC is expected to contain an estimated 340 000 t of ilmenite, 67 000 t of zircon, 50 000 t of rutile and 27 000 t of leucoxene. 

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value (NPV) of A$235-million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 125%, with a payback of 13 months.

Value
Total developmental capital is estimated at A$51.7-million.

Duration
Construction started in March this year and is slated for commissioning and first production in the fourth quarter of this year.

Latest Developments
Image Resources has received the first revenue from its Boonanarring mineral sands project after loading its first bulk shipment of 10 000 t of HMC.

The concentrate will be shipped to China as part of an offtake agreement with Shantou Natford Zirconium and Titanium.

Image has that following the successful completion of wet commissioning of the HMC production facilities at the end of November, the Boonanarring project produced sufficient concentrate during the production ramp-up period in December to allow for the 10 000 t shipment.

Ore processing rates in early January continued to exceed ramp-up period budgeted rates, with HMC inventory levels beginning to build for a second shipment, which is currently scheduled for mid-February.

Image said that the company remains committed to seeing the project become cash-flow positive by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Image Resources, tel +61 8 9485 2410, fax +61 8 94868312 or email info@imageres.com.au.