Olary Flats Project
The Olary Flats Project represents a major investment in South Australia that will generate jobs and economic activity. It involves critical "enabling" infrastructure, which will create a financially and physically viable means of exporting all iron ore concentrates produced in the Braemar Region.
It is anticipated that the project will be a significant contributor to the establishment of a viable iron ore mining and processing industry in South Australia and New South Wales stretching from upper Spencer Gulf to Broken Hill. It will be an “engine” for long term, responsible economic growth in this region.
Assets
The company has over 1 billion tonnes confirmed JORC resources. The Olary Flats project is in South Australia and carries Government support for development. Our project is very attractive as the Iron ore concentrate product will be amongst the highest available in Australia at 70% Fe. The standard Pilbara region offer is 58 to 62% Fe. Lodestone concentrate will attract a premium price and higher than 62% Fe sinter fines. The quality of our iron concentrate product makes it attractive to all global steel makers.
The ore body outcrops at the surface and is hosted within soft rock with an average magnetite content of 25%; this together with the introduction of “dry grinding technology” from Germany, will result in significantly reduced capital and operating costs, with reduced reliance upon water for processing, unlike all other market competitors.
The mine site is well situated with access to abundant transport infrastructure connecting to South Australian port facilities and with an available experienced local workforce nearby.
Starting small at 1.5 million tonnes per annum, our project will be ramped up to approximately 25 million tonnes per annum over the initial years of the mine’s operation. As an indication of the demand for the high quality of the concentrate, the company holds Letters of Intent covering over 20 million tonnes per annum from customers.
The process flow sheet and other innovations will ensure a lower total capital cost for the overall project, the majority of this is for processing plant and equipment costs. These items attract Foreign Export Finance from the offshore equipment manufacturers. As a result, the finance risk is greatly reduced. To date we have expended over AUD$35 million on exploring and investigating iron ore projects in South Australia.
The management team is highly experienced with multiple years in mining and iron ore processing operations. The team members have a track record of establishing many large scale ore mining operations.
Rewards Strategy - The primary aim of the enterprise is to generate strong positive cash flow to support the region and the enterprise and strong dividends that repay the initial investment many times over. Of course, private share sales are always possible too. Rewards via a trade sale pursuant to attractive offers, will always be evaluated by the Board but is not the primary aim of the Board.
The Olary Flats Project mine and processing plant is located 35km south east of Olary town in South Australia and 115km from Broken Hill, New South Wales. It carries South Australian government support for development.
Set out here is our planned configuration for rapidly moving into production. It requires minimal further analysis and summarises our vision and our blue print for construction of a rapid start-up project.
Mining Operations
Mining will be via conventional drill, blast, excavators, inpit crushers and conveyors to process plant
Concentrate Process Plant at Mine
The process plant (financed as much as possible with export credits) will consist of Loesche Vertical Roller Mills for dry grinding in a single step from 100mm to liberation size. To make the magnetite concentrate we have a choice between dry magnetic separation and wet magnetic separation followed by hydro separation.
Concentrate delivery Mine to Rail
Concentrate piped as a slurry from the mine process plant to the Railroad siding at Olary where it will be loaded into containers and trucked to the rail siding to be loaded to rail
Concentrate delivery Rail to Port
Unit trains (third party owned and operated) will bring concentrate from Olary to the harbour on the Australian Rail Track Company (ARTC) railroad and the concentrate containers will be loaded to vessels at the harbour.
Port storage and rail transfer
Containers will be transferred and stored at the port then transferred to the ship loading area for loading to ship
Shipping of Concentrates to Market
Vessels will be loaded with concentrate from harbour cranes. Concentrates will be shipped in chartered, geared bulk carriers