Regional Geology
The area occurs within the Hamersley Province which covers an approximate area of 80,000 km2 . The Hamersley Province contains late Archaean to Lower Proterozoic age sediments of the Mount Bruce Supergroup. This Supergroup contains the Fortescue, Hamersley and Turee Creek Groups, which are overlain by remnants of the Wyloo Group.

The Fortescue Group is a sequence of basalts, inter-bedded clastic sediment, minor chemical sediment and doleritic intrusions. This Group contains the following Formations: the Mount Roe Basalt, the Hardey Formation, the Kylena, Boongal, Tumbiana and Maddina Formations, and the Jeerinah Formation.

The Hamersley Group overlies the Fortescue Group, and is approximately 2,500 m thick containing a sequence of banded iron formations (BIF) dolomites, pyroclastic/hemipelagic shale, and acid volcanics.

Local Geology.
The iron ore deposits within the Proposal area are principally of a bedded iron ore deposit (BID) type, found within enriched units of the Brockman and Marra Mamba Iron Formations of the Hamersley Group. The Proposal is situated in a valley trending generally east-west up to 2 km in width and bound by hills having relative relief of 50 to 150 metres from the valley floor.

The geomorphology of the valley is a consequence of the erosional characteristics of these units, with the more resistant Brockman Iron Formation to the south forming high, steep ridges and the Marra Mamba Iron Formation forming lower rounded hills along the northern flank of the valley. The less resistant bedrock of the Wittenoom, Mt McRae and Mt Sylvia Formations have been weathered and eroded to a greater extent. The resulting valley has subsequently been infilled with Tertiary and Quaternary sediments of various origins, including BIF derived colluvium/alluvium, clay and carbonate precipitates (calcrete).

Mineralisation is distributed variably within an area of approximately 40km in an east west direction and 3.5km in a north south direction. Mineralisation occurs at surface and extends to depths of up to 350 metres below the ground surface. The reported tonnes and grade in the Mineral Resource occur at depths of up to 350 metres.

The Eliwana Iron Ore Mine will mine iron ore via traditional mining methods. Commercial grade iron ore is extracted from mine pits, transported to an ore processing plant before being loaded onto trains for export.

Pre-stripping is required to remove vegetation, topsoil and overburden (rock waste) prior to the commencement of mining activities. Vegetation and topsoil are generally stripped and stored separately, and the material removed is either transported to areas of active rehabilitation or stockpiled separately for future use.

Mine dewatering will be required where mine pits intersect groundwater. Mine dewatering will not be required for all proposed pits. Mine dewatering uses a series of abstraction bores situated either within, or in close proximity, to the pit to gradually lower the groundwater table in the local area.

Mining.
Mining will continue to employ conventional open pit methods of drill and blast followed by load and haul, similar to the methods employed at Fortescue’s Solomon Operations and at other open cut mines in the Pilbara. Material will be drilled and blasted for ore and waste, and then mined by excavators into haul trucks.

Remote Crushing.
Remote crushing is currently being considered and may be undertaken at a number of locations within the MDE (Mine Development Envelope). A remote crushing facility allows for the primary sizing of mined material in preparation for processing in the Ore Processing Facility (OPF).

Remote crushing infrastructure generally consists of:
- ROM bin;
- mineral sizer;
- gyratory crusher;
- crushed ore vault;
- Overland conveyor (and associated infrastructure e.g. substations, transfer points).

Once material has been crushed, it would be transported by truck or conveyor.

Transport to Run of Mine (ROM) Pad.
Transport from active mining areas to the ROM will be undertaken by a fleet of haul trucks. Options are currently under consideration for the full or partial use of autonomous trucks and overland conveyors.

Ore extracted during mining requires some processing to ensure that the final product meets customer demands with regards to iron content and impurities.

Primary Crushing.
Ore material delivered to the ROM pad will be stored in nominated ROM dump pads adjacent to a permanent ROM wall for primary crushing. Ore will pass through a primary crusher, resulting in a product stream of coarse ore less than 250 mm in diameter to be delivered to the OPF.

Conveyor to OPF.
Following primary crushing, coarse ore will be transported from the ROM pad to the OPF (Ore Processing Facility) via an overland conveyor. The overland conveyor is a rubber belt which operates over a distance of approximately 4 km. The overland conveyor discharges to a wider, 800 m long belt transfer conveyor via a transfer station and transfer chute. The transfer conveyor delivers coarse ore to the screening building in the OPF.

Ore Processing Facility.
The OPF consists of two plant areas - screening and crushing. The coarse ore feed to the screening plant is received from the transfer conveyor via a conveyor shuttle into the scalping screen bins.

Vibrating screens separate ore by size. Oversized ore is recycled back to crushing until all ore meets the required particle size (<10 mm).

The current plan is for the OPF to operate as a dry plant. If necessary, additional modules can be added to allow for wet processing.

Stockyard.
Processed product will be stored in a stockyard area prior to train load out. The stockyard design currently incorporates four linear stockpiles, each with a length of approximately 600m. A linear stacker will discharge to the stockpiles and ore will be collected using a bucket wheel reclaimer. The reclaimer will discharge ore to a reclaim conveyor belt, from which ore will be transported to the train load out via a load out conveyor. The load out conveyor will include a direct load option from the OPF so that product can be transferred directly between the OPF and the train load out (bypassing the stockyard).

Train Load-Out.
Ore received from the stockyard is loaded into individual ore cars.

Processing of iron ore may produce a waste stream of fine iron oxides, otherwise known as tailings. As a result of their fine particle size, tailings are stored in a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) to ensure they are not released to the environment.