Promise of riches for Hunter in mine project By IAN KIRKWOOD
AN iron ore refinery or iron smelter could be built in Newcastle if an ambitious plan to mine iron ore in western NSW bears fruit.
Eastern Iron Ltd, a company about to list on the Australian Stock Exchange, has secured the exploration rights to 2500 square kilometres between Bourke and Cobar and another 1300 square kilometres west of Condobolin.
If its hopes of mining the product eventuate, ore from the Cobar area would go to the coast by direct rail to Newcastle, while the southern "main line" is closer to Port Kembla, via Parkes.
Eastern Iron managing director Peter Buckley described the western plains exploration areas as an unrecognised opportunity.
"If we can commercialise this, it could be a very, very large project," Mr Buckley said.
He said aerial magnetic surveys of Eastern Iron's exploration areas showed clearly where the maghemite had been washed into long-dried river channels formed more than 20 million years ago.
Early surveys indicated about 1100 kilometres of maghemite gravel "paleo-channels", some 10 kilometres long, 400 metres wide and 10 metres deep.
"I was out there looking for gold and other base metals but all I could see was iron ore," Mr Buckley said.
Mr Buckley, a former State Government geologist, said NSW iron ore had been used in Australia's first steelmaking ventures, forgotten once the big West Australian and South Australian reserves were discovered.
In its prospectus, Eastern Iron says it is seeking to raise between $2.5 million and $5 million in its listing in May to continue exploration and to work on beneficiation, or ore-refining techniques.
If all went well, Eastern Iron would then seek to convert its exploration leases to mining licences, and to move to the ultimate stages of mining for domestic use or for export through Newcastle and Port Kembla. Mr Buckley said Newcastle port and rail links and Hunter coal reserves and power stations made it an ideal place to process ore into pellets or to smelt it into iron.
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