Name of the Project
Central Eyre iron project (CEIP).

Location
South Australia.

Client
Iron Road.

Project Description
The CEIP includes a proposed long-life mine and processing plant, as well as regionally supportive rail and port infrastructure.

The mine has been designed for in-pit crushing and conveying, with fully mobile and semimobile crushers, as the characteristics and size of the orebody are ideally suited to this mining method.

Mobile in-pit crushers will be connected to the main pit conveying system through smaller dedicated fully mobile conveyors. Each component is relocatable using transport crawlers, allowing for components to be easily moved during pit advance.

The optimisation programme proposes the construction of a modularised ore-processing facility on the south-east perimeter of the proposed pit.

The facility has three discreet processing trains to provide a high level of plant availability and minimise operational downtime.

The processing trains will incorporate seven main modules – a semiautogenous grinding mill, rougher magnetic separator, gravity beneficiation circuit, regrind mill, ball mill, cleaner magnetic separator and tailings filter building.

The facility will process up to 175-million tonnes (dry) a year of feed material at an overall average head grade of about 16% iron, producing 21.5-million tonnes a year of iron concentrate (dry basis) at an estimated 67% iron.

Dewatered coarse tailings from each process train will be discharged onto the tailings transfer conveyor. The filtered moist fine tailings will be transferred to the waste rock conveyor originating from the mine. The combined tailings and waste rock will be stacked on the integrated waste landform by a mobile spreader. This method minimises water use and reduces the waste storage footprint.

Iron concentrate will be transported from the mine site by a standard-gauge, heavy-haul rail system along the infrastructure corridor to a new port facility at Cape Hardy, when the bulk commodities port facilities are located 7 km south-west of Port Neill. The port is planned to have an initial capacity of 70-million tonnes, with the main export wharf capable of handling Panamax and Capesize vessels. Two shipping berths for bulk iron-ore carriers will be serviced by a slewing, luffing and travelling shiploader.

Jobs to be Created
The CEIP will employ about 1 950 people during construction and 700 during operations on the Eyre Peninsula, in addition to the workforce required in the Adelaide head office. 

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
A geared, post-tax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $1.4-billion and and internal rate of return of 15% is the minimum targeted outcome for the  project commercialisation phase.

Value
Start-up capital costs have been estimated at $3.7-billion.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
A review of the mine plan for the CEIP has identified lower upfront capital requirements and has accelerated the project’s ore extraction.

The review, conducted by Thiess-RWE, has focused on opportunities relating to early ore-access and mine establishment costs while leveraging efficiencies offered by the application and flexibility of continuous mining systems.

Iron Road has said the upfront mine capital cost estimate, excluding prestrip, has been reduced by $130-million to $965-million.

Targeting the initial areas of the orebody to optimise rapid ore delivery will ensure that the process plant can ramp up output of the CEIP’s high-quality iron concentrate about two years earlier than the 2015 optimisation study timetable.

Iron Road is planning to start a sole-source early contractor involvement (ECI) process, with the mining contractor displaying the “greatest appetite” for exposure to a high-value, long-term mining services contract.

The ECI process will be designed to ensure that the company and the selected contractor focus their “full collective abilities” towards generating a best-for-project outcome, with built-in and agreed stretch target objectives to meet all the company’s operational and financial objectives for the CEIP.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Iron Road, tel +61 8 8214 4400, +61 8 8214 4440 or email admin@ironroadlimited.com.au.