australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005
Resources
Until recently, all 10 of the central Queensland oil shale deposits were held by Southern Pacific
Petroleum (SPP), either solely or with joint venture partners. The last systematic review of the in situ
mineralisation for these ten oil shale deposits was completed by SPP in 2000 to comply with the
JORC Code.
Australia has 4.6 GL (29 million barrels) of shale oil EDR. This could increase significantly if the
research and development demonstration-scale processing of shale oil conducted at the Stuart deposit
near Gladstone from 2000 to 2004 were to lead to a commercial plant. Paramarginal and submarginal
demonstrated resources are 202.1 GL (1.3 billion barrels) and 3719 GL (23.4 billion barrels) respectively.
The demonstration plant at Stuart produced over 1.5 million barrels of oil. The shale tonnage
processed was small in comparison to the overall resource, so there is no change in the year 2000
reserves estimate at the reported level of precision.
Production
Oil production at the Stuart demonstration plant in 2004 was down 33% to 67 ML (421 000 barrels)
as final plant trials were successfully completed. These tests achieved stable production runs at or
above 100% of design capacity solid feed rates and oil yield, while maintaining product quality and
adhering to EPA emissions limits.
The oil products from the demonstration plant were Ultra Low Sulphur Naphtha (ULSN) 55–60% and
Light Fuel Oil (LFO) 40–45%. The ULSN, which can be used to make petrol, diesel and jet fuel has
a sulphur content of less than 1 ppm. To put this into perspective, petrol in Australia previously
contained about 500 ppm sulphur. Regulatory guidelines are in place to reduce this to 150 ppm for
petrol and to 50 ppm for diesel.
World Ranking
The 2001 survey of energy resources by the World Energy Council reported that Jordan, Australia and
Morocco have the largest deposits of ‘proved oil shale in place’. The same survey also reported that
production of oil from shale for 1999 was recorded in Brazil at 239 ML and Estonia at 185 ML.
Industry Developments
In early 2004, SPP’s oil shale assets were acquired by Queensland Energy Resources Ltd (QERL) and
later in the year QERL announced the successful completion of the Stuart Stage 1 demonstration
facility. QERL is now focusing on conducting extensive research and design studies for the next phase
of its Queensland oil shale operations based on the lessons learned from the demonstration plant.
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QERL stated that the results to date from Stage 1 have demonstrated that large scale oil extraction
from the Stuart deposit can be done. The company also added that over past years, the testing has
shown that there are many potential alternatives and variations to the details of the Stage 1 design,
which need to be fully explored if the value of these resources is to be maximised for all stakeholders.
The facility is now on care-and-maintenance in an operable condition to allow for any
further testing if required while design efforts continue on the next phase of development. It is
estimated that theses studies will take 12–18 months, after which a decision to proceed with frontend
engineering design of the preferred project configuration will be made.
Tantalum
Demand for tantalum has increased steadily since 2002. Australia, through the operations of Sons
of Gwalia Ltd, is the world’s largest producer of tantalum in the form of tantalum concentrates.
The company also controls the world’s largest stock of tantalum resources, principally in its holdings
at Greenbushes and Wodgina (WA).