Name of the Mine
Thunderbird mine.

Location  
Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Mine Owner/s  
Thunderbird is a 50:50 joint venture with Yansteel, part of Tangshan Yanshan Iron & Steel, a privately owned Chinese steel manufacturer and mineral sands-focused mining company Sheffield Resources.

Brief Description  
Thunderbird, which includes the Night Train deposit, is one of the biggest and highest-grade zircon mineral sands deposits in the world. It contains valuable minerals including ilmenite, zircon and leucoxene, which are extracted and exported as concentrates through the Port of Broome to offtake partners in China.

Brief History  
Construction activities at Thunderbird were completed in 2023.

The maiden shipment of Thunderbird products to customers was completed in January 2024, with the first bulk shipment departing from Broome in March 2024.

Primary Metals/Minerals  
Thunderbird produces a high-quality suite of mineral sands concentrate products suited to market requirements. These products include a zircon concentrate and a magnetic concentrate, which contains a high-quality ilmenite suitable for smelting into chloride slag or for manufacturing titanium dioxide pigment.

Secondary Metals/Minerals  
None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation  
The deposit is hosted by highly weathered Broome sandstone and contains valuable heavy minerals, including ilmenite, zircon, leucoxene, rutile and anatase.

The mineralisation is in a thick, broad anticlinal sheet-like body striking north-west, folded from flat dip to a dip of about 4, extending under cover to the south-west. The areal extent, width, grade, geological continuity and grain size of the Thunderbird mineralisation are interpreted to indicate an offshore, subwave base depositional environment. This is similar to the interpreted depositional environment of the WIM 150 deposit of the Murray basin, in south-eastern Australia.

Reserves  
As June 30, 2025, Thunderbird included proven and probable reserves of 710-million tonnes grading 11.1% heavy minerals.

Resources  
Total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources as at June 30, 2025, were estimated at 2.99-billion tonnes grading 6.8% heavy minerals.

Night Train resources were estimated at 50-million tonnes grading 5.9% heavy minerals.

Type of Mine
Conventional openpit.

Mining Method  
Thunderbird is a typical dry-mining mineral sands operation, whereby a moving void extracts the valuable mineral sands, with waste materials returned to the void, allowing for progressive rehabilitation of the mined area.

Major Infrastructure/Equipment  
Process infrastructure includes the mining unit plant, a wet concentration plant, a concentrate upgrade plant, a nonmagnetic finisher circuit and site buildings, a borefield, a liquefied natural gas supply and storage, a power station and power distribution infrastructure, new and upgraded roads, an accommodation village and upgraded materials handling facilities at the Port of Derby.

Prospects  
The operation has a 36-year life-of-mine.

Contact Details 
Sheffield Resources
Tel + 61 8 9215 6500
Email info@sheffieldresources.com.au
Website https://www.sheffieldresources.com.au/