The Boonanarring deposit is located on the Dandaragan Plateau and Swan Coastal Plain, to the west of the eastern edge of the Swan Coastal Plain, where the footslopes of the Gingin Scarp rise steeply to the Dandaragan Plateau. The local area comprises several surface geology units, however the Premises itself is predominantly located on the sand plain surface geology unit to the east of the Brand Hwy and the Gingin Scarp, and a smaller portion on the Bassendean Sand unit to the west.

The stratigraphic sequences relevant to the Boonanarring include the Quaternary aged Colluvial/Bassendean Sands and Guildford Formation, the Late Tertiary Yoganup Formation and the Mesozoic Leederville and Yarragadee Formations. All of these surficial geological formations have either been formed or have been strongly influenced by marine regression and transgression events since the Early to Mid-Tertiary (approx. 50 million years ago).

The Leederville and Yarragadee Formations, which typically forms the base of mineral sand operations on the Swan Coastal Plain, consists of interbedded, weakly to well consolidated sandstone, siltstone, shale and claystone that, in the upper portions, have been deposited in a non-marine, primarily fluvial setting. The Leederville Formation sediments conformably overlie the Yarragadee Formation. The mineralised sands of the Yoganup Formation unconformably overlie the Mesozoic Formations, and consists primarily of friable ‘beach’ sands which were deposited and developed during successive marine transgression and regression events.

The Yoganup Shorelines remained active for a prolonged period and during that time the surface topography would have resembled the current, present day coast. At the beginning of the Quaternary Period, sea levels regressed, bringing alluvial, fluvial and colluvial conditions which resulted in the deposition of the predominantly clayey Guildford Formation, directly over the shoreline deposits of the Yoganup Formation. Lastly, unconformably overlying the Guildford sandy clay to clay sediments are a series of Aeolian sand dunes belonging to the Bassendean Formation.

The Boonanarring is located within the Swan Coastal Plain geomorphological division and is situated on the Dandaragan Land System. This system is characterised as a subdued dissected lateritic plateau, with undulating low hills and rises with narrow alluvial plains.

The mineralisation of the Boonanarring deposit is hosted by the Yoganup Formation. The main geological units identified include:

- Surface sands: low clay, yellowish coloured and generally unconsolidated sands that occur from surface to depths of 4 – 10 m and which are interpreted as belonging to the Bassendean Sand unit. In some areas, lateritic surface gas formed at the base of this unit;

- Red cover sands: red to brown coloured iron-rich sands that have varying levels of induration and which often contain clayey lenses towards the base of the unit. Oversize material is common and goethite/limonite chips can report as heavy mineral concentrates. The sands are often coarse, suggesting a high energy depositional environment, and interpreted to correlate to the Guildford Formation;

- Host sands: brown to light grey, fine to medium grained sands that are well sorted and generally increase in grain size towards the base of the unit. This unit is correlated with the Yoganup Formation and contains heavy mineral accumulations associated with strandline deposition.

The heavy minerals within the Yoganup Formation have been concentrated in two main strandlines that coalesce in the south and are continuous over a strike length of 13.2 km. An additional strandline to the west is present in the southern part of the Premises. The basement to the strandline mineralisation is demarcated by the increased slimes content of the clay-rich Leederville Formation.

The mining and support earthmoving activities will be delivered under a Contract Mining Agreement, where the mining contractor will be responsible for all mining and associated earthworks using a standard Schedule of Rates contract incorporating normal dayworks provisions. Image will be responsible for statutory duties, technical services, potable water, power and dewatering operations.

Scrapers and/or excavators and trucks will be employed to mine the ore to a stockpile located at the SMU. A Cat 988 loader or similar will then feed the SMU from the stockpile at a rate of 500 t/h. Using this type of fleet will give flexibility for ore blending, not only when mined but also off the stockpile at the SMU. In addition, use of this method will mean the SMU can stay in one place for up to 12 months, which will minimise downtime due to SMU relocations.

The Boonanarring deposit is split into two strands; East and West. The eastern strand is generally higher in heavy mineral content than the lower grade western strand. To get consistency of the grade of the ore being fed to the WCP, the eastern and western strands will be blended. Ore feed has been constrained to a maximum of 500 t/h at 85% utilisation of SMU feed. This will be the primary production constraint.

Following initial pit establishment, the mine void will be progressively backfilled with overburden, sand tailings and clay fines. Dry clay from solar drying ponds will be mixed into the upper horizons of the sand tailings to improve soil quality prior to tailings profiling. The surface will then be re- contoured where necessary, in line with pre-mining surface contours or other agreed topography, before replacement of topsoil and subsoil.

Mine closure will involve the removal of all site infrastructure (certain infrastructure, such as bores, may be retained by prior agreement with landholders and the DMP), remediation of any contaminated soils and ground preparation (topsoil replacement, drainage works and ripping) for revegetation. Post-closure activities will include monitoring groundwater and the progress of rehabilitated areas towards agreed completion criteria will be measured.

The current mine sequence is based on:
• Completing ore mining from the currently stripped Pit C; then
• Commence mining on the eastern strand Pit B at the northern end and mine to the south; then
• Once sufficient void is established in Pit B east, commence overburden removal in Pit A and Pit B west, with Pit A mining in a northerly direction and Pit B west mining in a southerly direction; then
• Commence ore mining in Pit A once the bulk of the overburden has been removed at that Pit, at reduced mining rates (due to the restricted nature of this location), in conjunction with ore mining in Pit B west; then
• After ore mining completes in Pit A and B, recommence mining in Pit C and mine to completion in a southerly direction; finally
• Mine Pit D in a southerly direction.

The BFS is based on mining the Boonanarring deposit first, using conventional, dry, open pit mining techniques to extract the ore, and using standard gravity separation in a Wet Concentration Plant (WCP) to recover the contained Heavy Minerals (HM) into a Heavy Minerals Concentrate (HMC) for sale. The HMC will be transported by road to a storage facility at Bunbury where it will be loaded onto ships and transported in bulk to China.

The mineral processing operation will consist of two main sections:
- Slurry mining unit (SMU)
- Wet concentrating plant (WCP).

Selection of the key process stages and parameters were based upon the metallurgical testwork conducted by AML. The SMU primarily consists of:
- feed bin, vibrating grizzly feeder
- scrubber feed conveyor
- a rotating drum scrubber with trommel screen, and pumping system
- supporting equipment on a transformer skid.

The function of the SMU is to screened for oversiz ........