australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

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AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005 and 85 000 tpa of ilmenite over a mine life of 10.8 years. All of the project’s planned output will be contracted under long term supply arrangements with off-take partners for the first five years of the mine life. Australian Zircon NL is also earning an 80% participating interest in its WIM 150 Joint Venture with Austpac Resources NL. Metallurgical testwork is being carried out to recover a zircon product from the WIM 150 heavy mineral deposit that would be suited to the premium ceramic grade market. Olympia Resources NL announced an upgraded heavy mineral resource status for its Keysbrook deposit to 64 Mt of measured, indicated and inferred tonnes of mineral sand at 2.6% heavy minerals for 1.66 Mt of heavy minerals at a cut-off grade of 1.5%. The resource is reported to contain proved and probable reserves of 41 Mt of mineral sand at 2.7% heavy minerals containing 1.174 Mt of heavy minerals. The company is anticipating completing a feasibility study on the deposit by mid-2005. In other developments during 2004, Gunson Resources Limited announced, for their Coburn Project in Western Australia, an indicated resource of 250 Mt with 1.4% heavy minerals containing about 3.5 Mt heavy minerals grading at 46% ilmenite, 5% rutile, 6% leucoxene and 23% zircon with additional 460 Mt of inferred resource at 1.4% heavy minerals. The company completed a bankable feasibility study in late 2004 and construction is anticipated to commence once mining permits are granted. Current plans are for production to commence late in 2006. In early 2005, Matilda Minerals Ltd announced reserves of 2.05 Mt at 6.01% heavy minerals for their Tiwi Islands mineral sands project in Northern Territory. The Tiwi Islands are located north of Darwin and comprise the Melville Island in the east and the Bathurst in the west. The reserves are contained in three deposits, Andranangoo and Lethbridge on the north coast of Melville Island and Puwanapi on the west coast of Bathurst Island. The company reported that feasibility studies indicate that the project could produce 35 000 t of concentrate per year for at least three years containing 13 000 tpa zircon, 9 000 tpa rutile/leucoxene and 11 000 tpa ilmenite. Matilda Minerals Ltd reported that it has an offtake agreement with Astron Limited to take all production from the project and concentrate would be shipped direct to China. Nickel More than 80% of the world’s nickel production is used in alloys. When alloyed with other elements, nickel imparts toughness, strength, resistance to corrosion, and various other electrical, magnetic and heat resistant properties. About 65% of world nickel output is consumed in the manufacture of stainless steel. Stainless steels are widely used in the chemical industry, consumer products (eg. sinks, cooking utensils, cutlery and white-goods), motor vehicles and the construction industry. Resources EDR decreased marginally (1%) in 2004 from 22.8 Mt to 22.6 Mt. This was partly due to some companies reclassifying lateritic nickel resources to inferred category JORC, pending more detailed resource definition. Of this amount, just over 40% of EDR was in sulphide ores, and the remaining associated with laterites. 52 Western Australia remains the largest holder of nickel resources with 90% of total EDR. Nickel production continued at the operating sulphide mines of WMC Resources Ltd’s Leinster and Mt Keith; LionOre Mining International Ltd’s Black Swan and Emily Ann; Jubilee Mines NL’s Cosmos; Mincor Resources NL’s Miitel, Wannaway, and production commenced at Redross in September 2004 and at Mariners in the first quarter of 2005. Production also commenced from Sally Malay Mining Ltd’s Sally Malay mine in August 2004. Sulphide nickel production continued or commenced at another eight mostly small mines. Mining of lateritic nickel continued from Minara Resources NL’s Murrin Murrin mine and from the OMG’s Cawse mine. Despite ongoing production from the sulphide nickel mines, EDR for sulphide nickel increased marginally from 9.4 Mt to 9.7 Mt in 2004 whereas lateritic nickel decreased from 13.5 Mt to 12.9 Mt.
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005 New South Wales is the second largest holder of EDR with 6.9%, followed by Queensland 2.7%, Tasmania 0.2% and Northern Territory at 0.1%. Nickel resources in both New South Wales and Queensland are associated with laterite deposits, whereas EDR in Tasmania and Northern Territory are mostly sulphides. Subeconomic demonstrated resources, which account for about 8.9% of total identified resources, increased by 0.2 Mt during the review period. Paramarginal resources increased by 0.5 Mt while submarginal resources decreased by 0.3 Mt in 2004. Western Australia has 80% of submarginal resources. Inferred resources increased by 3.1 Mt (19%) to 19.5 Mt in 2004. Western Australia maintained its dominant share of inferred resources at just under 90% followed by Queensland with 7%. The ratio of inferred resources to EDR increased from 0.7:1 in 2003 to 0.9:1 in 2004. Accessible EDR Currently, all nickel EDR is accessible for mining. At the rate of production in 2004, AEDR of nickel (including both sulphide and laterite) are sufficient for an average of over 120 years. JORC Reserves Around 30% of AEDR comprise JORC Code reserve. Of this amount, over 30% occur in nickel sulphide deposits and the remaining in nickeliferous laterite deposits. The remaining 69% of EDR represents resources assessed by Geoscience Australia from the measured and indicated categories of industry reported mineral resources, as defined under the Code and other classification systems used by companies not listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Total JORC Code reserves of nickel are adequate for an average of 37 years at current rates of production. Exploration Expenditure on nickel-cobalt exploration during 2004, as reported by ABS, amounted to $118.2 million, an increase of 68% over the previous period. Western Australia attracted most of this expenditure with $104.4 million. Nickel exploration continued to target komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide and lateritic nickel deposits in the Yilgarn Craton (WA) and the mafic-ultramafic Giles Complex in Western Australia and South Australia. The East Kimberley region in northern Western Australia also attracted interest. Some of the exploration results of interest in 2004 include: ■ ■ WMC Resources Ltd & Falcon Minerals Ltd’s drilling at the Collurabbie project, 170 km northeast of the Mt Keith nickel mine (WA), indicated potential for a new nickel province. Drill intersections from the Olympia prospect include 5.77 m at 3.00% Ni, 1.96% Cu and 5.29 g/t PGMs from 279.43 m and 8 m at 1.23% Ni, 1.62% Cu and 3.84 g/t PGMs from 64 m. The Collurabbie project covers over 500 km 2 of the northern extension of the Gerry Well Greenstone Belt. The mineralisation style and metal association at Collurabbie is regarded as unique in Western Australia. Diamond drilling intersected disseminated sulphide mineralisation over 7 km of strike in the first of two parallel mineralised horizons. The Olympia Prospect occurs within the second mineralised horizon. WMC Resources Ltd reporting that the Babel Ni-Cu-Co-PGM deposit in the West Musgrave region, discovered by WMC in 2000, has been drilled by 125 holes that indicate an inventory of mineralisation in the order of one million tonnes of nickel and one million tonnes of copper (with PGM and cobalt credits). A mineral resource had not been defined at the time of the announcement and further metallurgical studies are planned to evaluate the economics of the project. Drilling programs are planned for early 2005 to test for deep mineralisation at Babel and to target a significant electro-magnetic anomaly in the region. 53
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