australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

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AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005 Mine portal (centre) and surface facilities Cracow gold mine, Queensland (Sedimentary Holdings Ltd). ■ Sedimentary Holdings Ltd and Newcrest Mining Ltd continued development of the Cracow mine at Cracow in south east Queensland in 2004 with the first ore processed and gold poured in November 2004 after one year production will ramp up to 120 000 ounces gold and 60 000 ounces of silver per year from 300 000 tonnes of 11–14 g/t Au. ■ ■ At Twin Hills in the northern Drummond Basin in central Queensland, BMA Gold Limited announced indicated and inferred resources of 526 000 t @ 19.3 g/t Au and 435 000 t @ 7.3 g/t Au at its 309 and Lone Sister epithermal gold deposits, respectively. Mine development is expected in 2005. Resolute Mining Limited announced new resource figures for their Ravenswood projects, Nolans, Sarsfield, and Mount Wright in north-east Queensland with total reserves of 34.0 Mt @t 0.9 g/t Au for 1.025 Mozs in a total resource of 74.9 Mt at 1.3 g/t for 3.15 Mozs. 38 WESTERN AUSTRALIA ■ Newcrest Mining Ltd reported that at Telfer all elements of the first processing train had been commissioned in November including the semi-autogenous grinding mill. Ore grade material was being processed to produce a gold-copper concentrate. Over a 24 year mine-life annual production from Telfer is expected to be 800 000 oz Au and 30 000 t Cu. Current in situ resources at Telfer are 26 Mozs Au and 0.96 Mt Cu. ■ ■ ■ Metex Resources Ltd commenced trial mining of Whisper trial pit started in the June quarter as part of a feasibility study on the Whisper resource, which was scheduled for completion by the end of 2004. At the East Kundana project Tribune Resources NL announced that the Raleigh underground mine would be developed. The mine is expected to produce 487 000 ozs over a seven year mine life with the ore being processed at the Paddington plant. Dioro Exploration NL announced the first gold pour at the Frog’s Leg project. The initial operation will yield 112 000 oz over 14 months. A pre-feasibility study confirmed an underground resource of 1.8 Mt @ 5.4 g/t Au would support a four year operation.
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005 Gold ore stockpile at Kanowna Belle mine, Western Australia (Placer Dome Inc.) ■ Reed Resources Ltd announced that it would develop the high-grade Sand George deposit at Comet Vale, 100 km north of Kalgoorlie (WA). The company expects to recover 65 200 ozs over a two-year mine life. Iron Ore Iron is the second most abundant metal after aluminium making up about 5% by weight of the Earth’s crust. Iron is almost always found as an iron oxide, for example, hematite (Fe 2 O 3 – 69.9%Fe) and magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 – 74.2%Fe). About 98% of iron ore is used in the iron and steel industry with the remainder mainly used in coal washeries and cement manufacturing. Iron, in the form of steel, is used 20 times more than all the other metals put together. The iron ore industry in Australia is a major export industry dominated by the Western Australian operations of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Other locally important iron ore projects include Koolyanobbing, Cockatoo Island, Tallering Peak (WA), Middleback Ranges (SA) and Savage River (Tas). Minor production occurs at Breadalbane (NSW), Tallawang (NSW) and Kara (Tas). Resources In 2004, EDR increased by 17.7% to 14.6 Gt. This was mainly due to price increases from which magnetite deposits were reclassified as economic, for example, Iron Magnet, George Palmer, Mt Gibson and Southdown. There were also increases in Hamersley Iron resources and Christmas Creek was included for the first time. Western Australia has almost all of Australia’s EDR with about 92% occurring in the Pilbara district. 39 With the reclassification of demonstrated magnetite deposits as economic, paramarginal demonstrated resources decreased by 80% to 0.2 Gt. Subeconomic demonstrated resources decreased 2.0% to 1.9 Gt following updated resources being reported for Tallering Peak. Inferred resources increased by 0.9% to 16.9 Gt due largely to the inferred resources at Christmas Creek, Mt Lewin, Claytons Hammer and Minister North offsetting decreases at Yandicoogina, undeveloped Hamersley Iron deposits and
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australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

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