australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005
Mount Bischoff: In January 2005, Bluestone purchased the historical Mount Bischoff mine located
80 km north of the Renison Bell mine. Total measured + indicated + inferred resources were estimated
by former owners to be 742 000 t averaging 1.23% Sn (9 127 t contained tin metal). Bluestone plans to
re-establish the open cut mine and ore will be trucked to the Renison mill for processing.
Collingwood Project (30 km south of Cooktown, North Queensland): The former owners completed
a considerable amount of underground development and site infrastructure prior to cessation of
development in the late 1980s because of low market prices (refer Australia’s Identified Mineral
Resources 2004 for details). During 2004, Bluestone continued refurbishing the main decline and
underground mine workings and purchased new equipment for the mine. Mine production is
anticipated to commence in the latter part of 2005.
At Ardlethan, alluvial mining operations progressed northwards towards the abandoned Wild Cherry
open cut. However, the nature of the alluvial resources changed near the open cut and performance
of the operation was hampered by increased clay-content in the alluvials and a decrease in mine
grades. Production for the six months ended 30 June 2004 was 378 512 kg tin, which was 37% less
than for the previous six months. The recovered grade for the six months to 30 June 2004 was 1.28 kg
tin/bank cubic metre (kg/BCM) compared to 1.93 kg/BCM for the previous six months. During the
last few years, the recovery rate for the operation was 45% of the total contained tin in reserves.
Mining operations ceased in August 2004 as the operation became unprofitable.
Greenbushes mine produced 467 tonnes refined tin ingots in 2004. Greenbushes is the world’s
largest hard rock tantalum mine. Tin occurs in association with tantalum minerals and is recovered
as a by-product during ore processing. It is produced in ingot form from a smelter at the site.
Van Dieman Mines purchased 13 exploration and retention licences over a number of deep lead
alluvial deposits in northeast Tasmania. The licence areas are in a belt extending from the Blue Tier
granite in the south through to the northeast coast of Tasmania and extend off-shore into Ringarooma
Bay. Historical records up to 1980 show that in excess of 39 000 t tin has been recovered from this
region most of it from alluvial operations. During the 1960s and 1970s a number of major companies
conducted exploration and evaluation drilling programs, which delineated significant resources of
alluvial tin in the Scotia, Central Ringarooma, Great Northern Plains and Offshore deposits. Van Dieman
Mines has applied for mining leases over these deposits and proposes to commence mining at Scotia,
Endurance and Central Ringarooma.
Uranium
Uranium has two major peaceful uses: as the fuel in nuclear power reactors to generate electricity;
and in the manufacture of radioisotopes for medical applications. Approximately 16% of the world’s
electricity is currently generated by the use of uranium in nuclear reactors. Some 439 nuclear power
reactors are operating in 31 countries; a further 69 new reactors are under construction or planned
for completion within the next ten years. Much of this growth will occur in China, India, Japan and
South Korea. A total of 16 countries generate more than 25% of their total electricity requirements
from nuclear reactors. Australia has no significant national demand for uranium and all mine
production is exported under nuclear safeguards agreements with importing countries.
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Resources
Geoscience Australia prepares estimates of Australia’s uranium resources within categories defined by
the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The estimates in each category are for resources of recoverable uranium after losses due to mining
and milling have been deducted. In Table 1, these estimates are reported under the corresponding
resource categories of the national classification scheme. The resource categories of both schemes are
correlated in Table 3.