PORT Lincoln could soon contribute to reducing carbon emissions, through graphite mining set to restart at Uley in February.
Perth-based exploration company Eagle Bay Resources and joint venture partner Mikkira Graphite are looking to restart Eagle Bay’s graphite mine at Uley near Sleaford in February.
The deposit is 23 kilometres from Port Lincoln, containing a world-class resource of high-grade graphite.
Eagle Bay Resources chairman Jim Craib said the joint venture partners were working out an extraction program.
The mine would be the only one in the country, and would boost jobs and the local economy.
“It could turn into something very useful for Port Lincoln and Australia,” he said.
Mr Craib said the graphite would be used in the manufacture of the central core of large graphite heat sinks, which store renewable energy.
Using cutting-edge technology, a heat sink can store heat up to 1800 degrees Celsius, which can later be converted to electrical energy.
Eagle Bay Resources set up the mine in the 1990s with another company, but the low price for graphite saw the joint venture fizzle.
“We were producing graphite but we couldn’t sell it at an economical price.”
The company began a joint venture with Mikkira Graphite last year and started drilling in September.
Mr Craib said the price had risen recently with the new development of graphite heat sinks.
“These heat sinks are an entirely new use of graphite,” he said.
It was originally planned drilling and sampling would be done over two years, after which time Mikkira Graphite would decide whether or not to acquire 75 per cent of the venture from Eagle Bay Resources with a view for commercial production.
However the strong presence of graphite meant the company had decided to go ahead with extraction and refining.
“Every time they put down a hole they got graphite, so they didn’t need to do the two years.”
The graphite will be refined in the current plant, which has been there since the first round of mining, but Mr Craib said this plant was ageing and Mikkira Graphite may build a new one.
It would be built and operated in Townsville but used locally when needed to refine the graphite before it was shipped out of the Port Lincoln port or trucked.
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