The Miralga Creek DSO Project comprises the mining of iron ore from five satellite pits within three discrete mining areas, spread over 30 km, as follows:
1. Miralga East (3 pits), 35 km north-east of the now closed Abydos Mine, with the three pits located along an east to west trending ridge.
2. Miralga West (1 large pit), 22 km north-east of Abydos, with the pit on a north-east to southwest trending ridge.
3. Sandtrax (1 small pit), 7 km north-east of Abydos, with the pit along an east–west ridge.
The pits will be mined in a staged manner by a small mobile mining fleet.
Mining will be conventional drill and blast, load, and haul methods. It is expected that approximately 8 Mt of iron ore will be mined above the groundwater table over approximately 4 to 5 years with an average strip ratio of 0.8:1 (waste:ore). The proposal is to maintain approximately 2 Mtpa ore supply with a mobile mining fleet, on a day shift only basis for seven days a week. New infrastructure in addition to the existing Abydos operation will include open pits, waste rock dumps, extension to haul roads and run of mine (ROM) pads. Topsoil and vegetation will be removed, where possible, during early development and stockpiled in adjacent well-drained areas. The orebodies crop out at surface and do not require pre-stripping. Topsoil stockpiles will be managed appropriately and the materials will be used during rehabilitation.
Waste Rock Management
Approxim ........
