Extension

The Extension iron ore project, that is located approximately 70 kilometres north west of Newman in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, is close to realisation after it was given environmental approval by the Western Australian government in March, 2015.

Extension Mine to be Developed by the Australian Aboriginal Mining Corporation

The proposed Extension mine, that is to be developed by Perth based Australian Aboriginal Mining Corporation (AAMC Ltd), will be the first iron ore mine in Australia to be owned and operated by Aboriginal people. AAMC Limited is part owned by Aboriginal mining contracting company, Carey Mining, of Malaga, Western Australia.

The Extension open cut iron ore mining operation will extract ore from the Channel Iron Deposits that occur above the water table. Much, or all, of the ore to be mined is planned to be upgraded with it being processed through a beficiation plant using solar cells in order to consolidate tailings. Tailing left over, along with waste rock, will be replaced inside the mined out pits as the open pits are developed.

Extension Mine to use Solar Drying Cells to Treat Tailings

The Extension open cut mine infrastructure will include an access road as well as internal roads, water supply, run-of-mine (ROM) pad, solar drying cells, processing plant, conveyors and stockyard, ore crusher and a mine workers accommodation camp. The mine will make use of backfill and solar drying cells in place of the conventional tailings dam as this methodology will reduce the need to undertake excessive clearing.

Extension Mine will Require Minimum Blasting

The Extension mining operation will incorporate the development of three open cut pits covering an area of 270 hectares. The pits will be shallow, in most cases not exceeding a depth of 20 metres, which allows for a low strip ratio for waste rock. The mining area will be cleared of all vegetation with the topsoil stockpiled for later rehabilitation of the mine site. The mining operation will remove the ore in layers of approximately 30 centimetres depth that will require minimal blasting as most of the materialwill be able to be removed with conventional surface mining equipment.

Mined ore will be either taken from the Extension mine pit to the ROM stockpile for direct transport from the site, or alternatively, be processed through beneficiation. All the ore will require crushing and screening to make certain it is properly sized and made suitable for marketing. Ore from the Extension mine will be able to be sold without beneficiation but the advantage in having it processed in such a way will remove silica and other impurities and therefore increase its value in the marketplace. If it is decided to proceed with the beneficiation of the ore the processing will usewet screens to remove the higher levels of impurities. The mine is to be designed to produce between two and four million tonnes of ore a year.

Extension Mine partner, Carey Mining, was established in 1995, it is Australia's foremost Aboriginal owned mining and civil contracting company.The company services its mining industry clients across the Western Australian Pilbara and Goldfields area. It is the most successful fully owned Aboriginal owned business in Australia.