Carpentaria Exploration (ASX:CAP) has started a Pre-Feasibility Study into the rail, port and marine export solution through Port Pirie for its Hawsons Iron Project joint venture in New South Wales.
This study, which will be carried out by GHD, is jointly funded by port operator Flinders Ports and will provide options to export magnetite concentrate using the port at Port Pirie.
Options will be assessed based on what is best for the community, the project and the environment.
It will investigate a 10 million tonne per annum concentrate export solution that is expandable up to 30Mtpa with multi user capability.
The study will build on the review by Balance Resources that found a Port Pirie solution efficient and viable and concluded that the estimated operating costs of $21 per tonne to transport concentrate 360km from a rail head near Broken Hill to a loaded ship in the Spencer Gulf are reasonable.
Carpentaria, which holds a 60% interest in Hawsons, has also engaged TransGrid to conduct a network capability study into the anticipated reinforcement works needed to existing infrastructure to provide power to the Hawsons site.
Preliminary investigations by the JV have indicated these works will not be extensive and will not include costly additional poles and wires.
The company has estimated an installed power requirement at the site of 120MW, with usage at 90MW for 10Mtpa concentrate production, well below similar projects with hard banded iron formation ore and key to its low estimated costs
Hawsons is located 60 kilometres southwest of Broken Hill and has access to existing power, rail and port infrastructure.
The JV is currently undertaking a bankable feasibility study based on production of a premium, low cost iron concentrate product.
Hawsons’ soft rock is different from traditional hard rock magnetite and allows a fundamentally different approach to typical magnetite mining and processing challenges.
It enables simple liberation of a premium magnetite product without complex and expensive processing methods.
The project is underpinned by Inferred and Indicated Resources totalling 1.8 billion tonnes at 15% mass recovery for 263 million tonnes of concentrate grading at 69.7% iron.
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