Transport, mining and civil works tenders are starting to flow as Legend International Holdings prepares to kick off production at its north-west Queensland phosphate tenements. The company is very confident in the project - which is scheduled to begin as a 1-1.5 million-tonnes-per-annum operation and ramp up to five million tonnes within three years, according to logistics manager Elle Hilton. It is expected to generate 1000 jobs in the construction phase and to employ about 500 people, directly and indirectly, after production begins. “Essentially the approvals processes are running well - they’re all timed right for us to start production at the end of the year,” Ms Hilton said. “We’re starting to look at trial mining and mine contracts. “We have everything we need – a strong cash position, an outstanding resource and the right team to get production happening on schedule. “In terms of the overall project Legend is very confident.”
Ms Hilton said this confidence stemmed from the project’s two outstanding strengths – the first being its excellent resource base, with good supplies of high-grade, near-surface ore. “Our expectation is that our current exploration and investigations will confirm over 1 billion tonnes of phosphate rock in reserve – so we’re never going to have a problem with supply,” she said. “The other very good thing is we have an excellent customer and strong partner in IFFCO (the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative), who signed an off take agreement with Legend.”
Legend plans to develop the project in three stages: • Stage 1 - To focus on drilling nearsurface, high-grade phosphate ore to delineate tonnage of direct shipping grade material to export from the D-Tree deposit by late 2009. • Stage 2 – To ramp up phosphate rock exports to 5 million tonnes by 2012 with ore sourced from a combination of Legend deposits. • Stage 3 – To produce value-added phosphate fertiliser products. Ms Hilton is tasked with organising an efficient transport stream for the project – from the ore deposits outside Mount Isa through to the Port of Townsville and on to India, where Legend International has an agreement to supply IFFCO’s Paradip plant.
Ms Hilton said a tender for the transportation of direct shipping-grade ore between the mine and Townsville port over the next two years was issued on May 31, with the deal to be sealed in July. “The requirement is to cart up to 1 million tonnes (per annum) from D Tree tenement to the Port of Townsville,” she said.
The company behind a major phosphate project says the pieces are falling into place to allow a start in production later this year. “That will most likely be a combination of road cartage and rail haulage. “Just on the preliminary figures that would involve between five and 10 multi-combination trucks per day. “We’re working closely with suppliers to maximise payloads on rail to ensure we take full advantage of the limited capacity available.”
Ms Hilton said the company was working on a tender for mining contract services including haul road design and construction, provision of a mine camp, mining equipment, labour and power generation. Legend recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Northern Stevedoring Services (NSS) in Townsville for provision of port services. Meanwhile, Legend and the Port of Townsville are jointly funding a design study for a new Berth 12 facility to cater for the expected ramp up to 5 million tonnes of phosphate exports by 2012. Ms Hilton believed Legend’s project had highlighted the long-known infrastructure constraints that could be said to be holding back industry in North and north-west Queensland. “We are very hopeful that our project will be a catalyst for some of the very important infrastructure that’s lacking in the area - whether transport, energy or water,” she said.
Legend is involved in ongoing discussions with Queensland Rail over available capacity between Mount Isa and Townsville. While the possibility of the company exporting through Darwin via a potential Mount Isa-Tennant Creek rail link has been raised, Ms Hilton said that was not Legend’s preferred option and it was not a realistic option at this stage. Legend previously conducted a study with GHD to investigate the option of using a slurry pipeline to transport beneficiated product to the Port of Karumba, but abandoned that avenue due to high costs and port logistics.
