EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Murray Basin Operations

‘Bemax has 67.5 million tonnes (Mt) of heavy mineral resources, of the Company’s total 85 Mt, over an area of 7,000km2, in the Murray Basin – resources to sustain mining for up to 60 years’. 

Ginkgo Mine

In 2005, the Ginkgo Mine became the first commercial mining operation in the Murray Basin. The Ginkgo Mine was the first mine to be rolled out of Bemax’s Murray Basin development program, and is the first stage of the two mine Pooncarie Project (Ginkgo and Snapper Mines).

The Ginkgo Mine contains 5.8Mt of heavy mineral, with an excellent suite of products including the currently highly priced and highly sought after Zircon product. The Snapper Mine, which will be mined in conjunction with the Ginkgo Mine, is an even richer mine containing an overall higher tonnage and greater percentages of both Rutile and Zircon. The Ginkgo Mine is located 220km from Broken Hill.

The Pooncarie Project has a mine life in excess of 25 years.

Production

Production at the Ginkgo Mine commenced in December 2005.

In January 2006, mining in high grade zones of the ore body commenced and by February 2006, sufficient stockpiles of product had been mined for trucking to the Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant for processing. The Ginkgo Mine is now operating at design capacity levels.

The infrastructure at the Ginkgo Mine is well established and includes a 124km (66kv) power line, 67 km of unsealed haulage road, readily available water supply, accommodation camp, communications as well as administration buildings. 

Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant

The Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant (MSP) has a Leucoxene circuit and a wet gravity circuit.

The MSP produces an Ilmenite and Leucoxene product for final sale through Port Adelaide and a Zircon / Rutile rich non magnetic product for shipping to Bunbury for further processing into Zircon, Rutile and Leucoxene products for final sale through the Port of Bunbury. The MSP is located in Broken Hill.

The MSP commenced commissioning in January 2006 and production in February 2006.

The Snapper Mine

Our proposed Snapper Mine is located 10 km from our Ginkgo Mine and 205 km from our Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant. The Ginkgo and Snapper Mines will be mined together although we plan to deliver a greater portion of heavy mineral concentrate to the Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant from the Snapper Mine than from the Ginkgo Mine due to the higher heavy mineral grade in the Snapper deposit. We plan to use the same mining method, wet plant technology and on-site processing as what we use at our Ginkgo Mine.