Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni1es  in  the  Murray  Basin

David Forster Senior Geologist – Industrial Minerals

Ginkgo  Mine    2011      

Murray  Basin  overview Palaeocene to Quaternary basin - NSW, South Australia and Victoria The  Murray  Basin  records  much  of  the  ancient  shorelines  formed  over  the  past  six  million  years  –  generally  overall  prograding    sequence  for  over  400  km  to  the  present  coast.  World-­‐class  province  for  Heavy  Mineral  Sands  Known  and  poten1al  for  :    Bentonite,  Kaolin  and  other  clays  Gypsum    Salt  Silica  Largely  untested  poten1al  for    Lithum  &  mobile  ions  Hydrocarbons  Uranium    

-­‐  Ginkgo  Mine    2011  -­‐  D.  Forster      

Ground  water

Whitehouse  et  al.  2000  

Murray Basin Stratigraphy

Cenozoic Early Fluvial sequences – then major prolonged regression deposition of the limestones and Geera clay. 1) Late Miocene – Low rates of sedimentation – sea-level fall - 2) Rapid late Micoene sedimentation. 3) Pliocene – Rapid trangression – re-mobilsation of sediments - formation of shoreface Loxton-Parilla Sands (Contemporaneous regressive back-barrier lagoons (Bookpoornong beds).

HM Accumulations Loxton-Parilla sands

Murray Basin Overview

Whitehouse et al. 2000

Transgression then prograding shoreface sequences Loxton-Parilla sands

Whitehouse

LPS 40-70 m thick – in NSW. Re-mobilisation of Miocene barriers during the early Pliocene?

Murray Basin Magnetics – Strand lines •  Typically  30  to  40  percent  

ru?le  and  zircon  in  lower-­‐grade  deposits  ~25%  overall.    

•  Single,  (Mainly  in  the  south)  •  Mul?ple,  stacked  strandline  

deposits,  are  oKen  more  than  >10  m  thick,  

•  Typically  ~5  %  HM  with  up  to  20  %  HM    

•  Up  to  several  hundred  meters  Up  to  10  to  25  km  long.  

Major Heavy Mineral sands deposits - NSW

Current Operations Ginkgo and Snapper Ginkgo – 205 Mt @ 3.3% HM (Pre-Mining Reserve) Snapper – 105 Mt @ 5.0% HM (2007)

Ginkgo  -­‐  Forster  

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin

New Heavy Mineral Sand Projects §  Atlas & Campaspe – Cristal Mining

Australia §  Atlas (Indicated) 11 Mt @ 15.4% HM §  Campaspe (Indicated) 99 Mt @ 4.7% HM §  6.5Mt HM (contained) §  As proposed – would create up to

200 new jobs in the region §  15-20 year mine life.

D. Forster

Industrial Mineral Opportunities in the Murray Basin

New Heavy Mineral Sand Projects §  Iluka Resources Limited (Currently Mining at

Ouyen) – West Balranald & Nepean (Pre-feasibility stage – Processing Plant – Hamilton Victoria

§  Combined inferred resource 16.3 Mt @ 32.2% HM.

§  Nepean (Inferred) 8.9 Mt @ 26.5 Mt HM §  West Balranald (Indicated) 29.5 Mt @ 26.5% HM §  Region in need of economic stimulus.

Forster

Industrial Mineral Opportunities in the Murray Basin

.

New  Heavy  Mineral  Sands  Projects    West  Balranald  &  Nepean  -­‐  Extremely  high-­‐grade  deposits    

Combined  inferred  resource)  16.3  million  tonnes  @  32.2%  HM.            

Courtesy  Iluka  Resources  Limited  

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin

Ginkgo  Mine    2011      

Courtesy  Iluka  Resources  Limited  

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin

West  Balranald  –  Long  Sec?on  

Ginkgo  Mine    2011      

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin

Courtesy  Iluka  Resources  Limited  

Heavy Mineral Sands- NSW Endowment

§  48.75 Mt ilmenite (FeO.TiO2), §  11.25 Mt rutile (TiO2), §  6.5 Mt zircon (ZrO2.SiO2), §  5.62 Mt leucoxene (FeO.TiO2)

Ginkgo

0  

200,000  

400,000  

600,000  

2001-­‐02  

2002-­‐03  

2003-­‐04  

2004-­‐05  

2005-­‐06  

2006-­‐07  

2007-­‐08  

2008-­‐09  

2009-­‐10  

2010-­‐11  

2011-­‐12  He

avy  mineral  San

ds  

prod

uc1o

n  (ton

nes)  

Heavy  mineral  sands  produc1on  for  NSW  in  2001-­‐2012  (in  tonnes)  

Total  Ilmenite  Ru?le  

Image –Cristal Mining Australia

Industrial Mineral Opportunities in the Murray Basin

Copi deposit – 129 new holes and re-assay. Very high-grade intersections have been defined at shallow depths ranging from 8 to 42 metres, averaging 18 metres ¬ Hole CNA098 has returned 7 metres averaging 21.4% HM from 16 metres below surface and individual metre assays range to 34.5% HM ¬ Numerous holes contain >5 metre thick intervals of plus 10% HM    

A new player – Broken Hill Prospecting Pty Ltd

12  

%  U   %  U  %  U  

%  U  

%  U  

%  U  

S  o  u  t  h    A  u  s  t  r  a  l  i  a  

V  i  c  t  o  r  i  a  

N  e  w    S  o  u  t  h    W  a  l  e  s  

HM  Beach  Placer  

Offshore  HM  deposit  

A  

B  

A  

B  

Murray  Basin  HM  

Beach  Placer  Poten?al  

Stacked  placer  deposits:  thickness  >10  m,    wide  (>  200  m),  very  large  HM  resources  

Single  placer  deposits:  thickness  <  10  m,    narrow  (<  200  m),  large  HM  resources  

Murray  Basin  

Loxton-­‐Parilla  Sands  

Main  zone  thick    

beach  placer  deposits  

??  

Beach  placer    limit  

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni1es  in  the  Murray  Basin

U-­‐Pb  Cassiterite  da?ng  Laser-­‐Abla?on  ICPMS  -­‐  Previous  da?ng  studies  include  Sircombe  1999  (U-­‐Pb  on  zircons)  Jurassic  source  ages  interpreted……..    

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin    Commodity  Fact  Sheets

Bentonite Arumpo Bentonite mine Sodium bentonite – up to 5 m thick •  Arumpo Na (Mg- bentonite deposit 70.0Mt (Indicated) Est 1993 -

(In production). •  Murray Basin - has Estuarine and back barrier environments –

depocentres for widespread, pure volcanic ash deposits ~2.5 Ma due to low aeolian or fluvial deposition.

• Arumpo clay has among world’s •  highest external surface area • lowest permeability (CSIRO) • Ashfall deposit clays formed in saline marine sequence.

Arumpo  Bentonite  -­‐  C  Ricke2s  

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni1es  in  the  Murray  Basin  –    KAOLIN   Roy  et.  al.  (2000)  

•  Oaklands  Kaolin  deposit  –  current  producer  –    thickly  interbedded  with  quartz-­‐rich  sediments.    

•  Pure  high  quality  white  kaolin.  •  >  50  Mt  of  resources  known  Great  untested  poten?al  for  large  deposits    Oaklands-­‐Coorabin  area.  

Kaolin  

Oaklands  Kaolin  –  J.  Whitehouse  Whitehouse    

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni?es  in  the  Murray  Basin  GYPSUM

40000  

90000  

140000  

190000  

2007_8  

2008_9  

2009_10  

2010_11  

2011_12  

2012_13  

2013_14  

Murray  Basin  Gypsum  Produc1on  2007-­‐  2014      

tonnes  

C  Ricke2s  

Produc?on  mainly  for  agricultural  purposes.  Previous  produc?on  for  plasterboard  and  brick  making  (e.g.  Paxtons)  

SALTS

.  

C.  Rickeks  

Groundwater  quality  in  the  Murray  Basin  is    quite  variable  up  to  highly  saline  with  over    300  000  mg/L  of  salts  (Evans  &  Kellet  1989).    Sunsalt  –  have  two  opera?ons  in  the  Murray  Basin  –  mainly  for  sodium  salt.  Recent  Produc?on  -­‐  averaging  ~25  000  tpa    Typical  analyses  -­‐  NaCl  with    magnesium  =  860  ppm  Sulphate  –  3440  ppm  Calcium  –  515  ppm  Potassium-­‐  128  ppm  Iron  –  23  ppm  Iodine  –  5  ppm  

Regional Mineral Endowment  (2009)  of  total    endowment  according  to  region  ($)

Ginkgo  Mine    2011      MinSys  

Historical  Produc?on  ($)  

MinSys  

Total  Endowment  NSW    =  $387,376,068,494  

Bentonite  

Kaolin  

Gypsum  

Heavy  Mineral  Sands  

Salt  (2011-­‐12)*  

Murray  Basin  2012-­‐13  Produc1on      (Tonnes)  

1,385,810  t  

4600  million  megalitres,  which  is  some  1500  ?mes  the  capacity  of  the  Hume  Reservoir  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Murray  River. Little systematic investigation of  •  Coal  seam  methane,    •  coal  and  petroleum  and    •  Uranium,  •  Water-­‐borne  resources  within  the  Murray  Basin. •  Mobile  ions  –  Li  (CSIRO)  

Other Potential – The Murray Basin

Industrial  Mineral  Opportuni1es  in  the  Murray  Basin

THANKS! David Forster (Thanks to Cameron Ricketts, Cameron Perks, Dan Cronin and Phillip Blevin).

Ginkgo  Mine    2011