Hi Blythefan, you are correct about the oxide mining prior to...

Hi Blythefan, you are correct about the oxide mining prior to the 70's, yes they mined oxide for the fertiliser industry, but then a float plant was build and the current pit dug during the copper price boom in the early 70's, the plant did fail due to poor recoveries as the pit was transitional, but it's been shown the material does float as it is largely chalcocite which is a supergene sulphide.

With the mineralisation report you don't need a resource
http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Documents/GSWA-MineralisationReport_MiningLease_Guidelines.pdf

A Mineralisation Report and Supporting statement will suffice and that is just something generated by a CP Geo who writes a report stating the style of mineralisation and the Supporting Statement states why I can be theoretically mined. You can do it via a Resource report and an associated Mining Proposal, but that is over kill IMO as it requires about 3 orders of magnitude more work and cost.

I've been involved in a few and there are a piece of piss...

Tubber