The Menari Deposit resides in the Lucky Bay area, which is dominated by the Tamala Limestone, a belt of coastal limestone extending up to 8 km inland. Heavy minerals are derived originally from the metamorphic rocks of the Northampton Complex, which were delivered to the coast via the Hutt River and smaller tributaries. During the Late Pleistocene a dominant northward-moving long-shore drift current has spread the heavy mineral sands along the coast into beach and dune sequences that overlie the Tamala Limestone.

The Heavy Mineral Sands are concentrated in Dune and Strand deposits. The Dune deposits typically approximate a mounded accumulation over a variable basement topography. The Strand deposits reside on a paleo wave-cut platform that is generally flat to gently-seaward dipping. The heavy mineral grade is broadly distributed in the dune sequences and enriched in the strand deposits.

The mineralisation is 1.6 km long and up to 750 m wide and averages 16 m true thickness. The mineral envelope is generally near/at surface and is lobate in shape, pinching to the North and West. Grades generally increase from 2 % to 20 % Heavy Minerals (HM) with depth. Clay content is typically 0 % to 10 % and HM logging data indicates only minor calcite induration and coatings are associated with valuable minerals.

Conventional dry mining methods are to be employed and will include a combination of loader and dozer feed to a mobile, in-pit mining unit.

The Mining Unit Plant (MUP) is designed to be fed by a Front-End Loader (FEL) at a rate of up to 600tph. This will easily achieve the 3.6Mtpa required to feed the Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP) plant at its design capacity. The ore passes over a coarse vibrating screen and then conveyed to a trommel to remove remaining over size material greater than 2mm. The fine sand is then slurried and pumped to the WCP. The mobile MUP is located on the mining pit floor and periodically relocated closer to the mining face as mining advances. Oversize material remains on the pit floor.

The MUP feed is passed through deslime cyclones whereas unmineralised sand, predominantly silica is removed in spiral circuits. The clay fraction (slimes) are sent to a thickener to recover the water and then pumped to solar drying pads established atop the sand tailings. Dewatered sand tailings are returned to the mining void where they are contoured. The slimes are then blended with the sand tails before re ........