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Australia

Miralga Creek Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Iron Ore
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
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SnapshotThe Miralga Creek Mine consists of five satellite pits across three primary locations: Miralga East, Miralga West and Sandtrax. The first ore to port was in February 2022.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Hancock Prospecting Pty. Ltd. 100 % Indirect
The Miralga Creek mine is 100% owned by Atlas Iron Limited.

Atlas Iron was acquired by Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd in 2018, at which time it was de-listed from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Banded iron formation

Summary:

The Miralga Creek Project consists of three separate deposits (Miralga Creek, Sandtrax and Grants) on the northern margin of the Panorama Greenstone Belt within the East Pilbara Terrane. A fourth prospect, known as Miralga West is located some 4 km west of Miralga Creek.

Miralga Creek
The Miralga Creek deposit is hosted within the Cleaverville Formation, part of the Archaean age Gorge Creek Group. The iron formation of the Cleaverville Formation forms a prominent east-west striking ridge which dips steeply to the north. The deposit is bound to the north by the Lalla Rookh Sandstone.

Grants
The Grants deposit is hosted within the Archaean age Cleaverville Formation of the Gorge Creek Group and comprises BIF and chert, separated by thick sequence of quartzites and meta-felsic sandstones (Lo, 2013). Except in the east, it is uncertain whether this is all Cleaverville Formation as the Formation has been described by Lo (2013) as very siliceous and not a true BIF due to the rare iron bands within the chert.

Sandtrax
Sandtrax is located close to the Abydos project area and occurs in the same geological setting. Sandtrax is reported by Crowther, 2012, to occur within the Paddy Market Formation, however later mapping (Sweeney, 2014) confirmed that the Sandtrax deposits occur within the Cleaverville Formation of the Gorge Creek Group. It is bounded to the north by the Lalla Rookh sandstone.

Miralga West
Miralga West is hosted by the Cleaverville Formation of the Gorge Creek Group in a southwest trending range extending along strike from Abydos, some 40 km to the southwest.

Mineralisation
Miralga Creek
Mineralisation at Miralga Creek is goethitic with minor hæmatite and occurs in three separate shallow lenses. Mineralisation has been recorded to a maximum depth of around 100 m and a hard-cap of approximately 10 m has been identified but has not been domained separately. A review of the database did not reveal any mineralisation assaying above 60% Fe, so the origin of the mineralisation is probably supergene, with the steep dips enabling surface fluids to penetrate to depth. The mineralisation is open to the north.

Grants
Mineralisation at Grants has been described as goethitic (which is confirmed by the chemistry) extending to a maximum depth of 90 m in some areas (Lo, 2013). The resource modelling report describes the mineralisation extents as 275 m x 155 m, averaging 35 m deep with hard-cap extending to 10 m. A review of the database did not identify any mineralisation exceeding 60% Fe. Genesis of the mineralisation is probably supergene.

Sandtrax
The mineralisation at Sandtrax is described as gœthite with minor hæmatite, extending to approximately 50 m in depth. The dimensions of the mineralised lens are 370 m along strike and approximately 50 m wide. It is likely that the mineralisation is entirely hard-capped, although some of the deeper mineralisation may be older supergene.

It should be noted that the grade of the Inferred mineralisation at Sandtrax is similar or slightly lower grade to the deposits that have been mined by Atlas at Abydos (Slomp, 2017). Sandtrax is the smallest of the nine deposits, most of which contain between 1.4 Mt and 3 Mt.

Miralga West
A small amount of outcropping gœthite has been located on the BIF extending for several hundred metres along strike, and an average width of some 20–30 m.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 22, 2023
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