• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Australia
Cooljarloo Mine

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
150 km N from Perth, Western Australia, Australia

  Address:
Brand Highway
PO Box 31, Dandaragan
Cataby
Western Australia, Australia
6507
Phone+61-8-9690-9200
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Australia
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Heavy Minerals
  • Titanium
Mining Method
  • Dredging
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Desliming
  • Dry Screening
  • Wet Screening
  • Dewatering
  • Gravity separation
  • Electrostatic separation
  • Magnetic separation
Mine Life19 years (as of Jan 1, 2018)
Our Northern Operations complex in Western Australia consisting of the Cooljarloo dredge mine and floating heavy mineral concentration plant and the Chandala metallurgical site which includes a mineral separation plant and a synthetic rutile plant that produces synthetic rutile.
Latest NewsWeir improves Tronox’s asset management practices     January 14, 2021


Owners

Source: p. 31,36, 251
CompanyInterestOwnership
Tronox Holdings Plc. 100 % Indirect
Tronox Management Pty Ltd (operator) 100 % Direct

Deposit Type

  • Sedimentary
  • Mineral sands

Source: Source p.23, 24

Summary:

The mineral sand deposits occur at the top of a series of sedimentary deposits, within a sequence of relatively recent unconsolidated sands.

They generally originate from the adjacent Yilgarn Block, which has been eroded, transported by rivers and streams and deposited as beach sands along former coastlines.

The deposits now form successive north-south linear deposits well inland from the present coast. Upper level deposits that either outcrop or are covered by minimal amounts of nonmineralised material (overburden), occur in the northern half of the tenement. Mid-level deposits are covered with varying depths of overburden. The basement deposits occur below the mid-level deposits and are typically more weathered and of lower heavy mineral grade.


Mining Methods

  • Dredging
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source: p.1-2

Summary:

Cooljarloo is 170 kilometres north of Perth, where the company produces heavy mineral concentrates from dredging and dry mining operations.

The dredging operation uses one of the world’s largest floating dredges in a purpose-built pond to pump slurried ore at a rate of 3,000 tonnes per hour to a floating concentrator which recovers heavy minerals from the sand and clay using a series of gravity spirals. The heavy mineral concentrate produced at Cooljarloo is transported south in specially designed road trains to Tronox’s Chandala Processing Plant for separation and processing.

As mining operations move through the orebody, sand and clay are returned to fill the void and the surface is contoured to landforms similar to those that existed prior to mining. Because less than 5% of the total sands mined are removed during mining, the rehabilitation program can establish similar landforms and ecosystems to the original countryside.

Performance
The dredging operation at the south mine excavates the deeper deposits located below the water table.

A contract overburden removal fleet handles an average of 2.5 million bulk cubic m (BCM) of overburden per annum. The overburden is generally between 2-15 metres thick. Equipment used to remove this overburden includes one Komatsu PC2000 250 tonne excavator with a fleet of four Caterpillar 777D 100 tonne dump trucks. The Komatsu excavator can move up to 800 BCM/hour.

Two dredges operate in a pond up to 25 m deep and mine ore between 22 and 30 m thick. Together they mine 24 million tonnes of ore per year, which is delivered to the shared Wet Processing Plant. The pond water is natural groundwater and is fresh. The pond is up to one k long and 400 m wide. These facilities are controlled by operators via computers and GPS satellite navigation.

HMC is pumped to a central stockpile where it is stacked, ready for rehandling into road trains for transport to our processing facility at Chandala. Tailings from the plant comprise washed sand and clay at 2,950 tonnes per hour. The tails are directed either via a float line and floating tails stacker back to the dredge pond to form stable beaches and return stripped overburden or sent via external tails pipelines up to six kilometres in length to backfill previously mined out pits.

Clay from the ore is dried in purpose-built cells on the mined pits and on future mine path. No chemicals are used in the process.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Desliming
  • Dry Screening
  • Wet Screening
  • Dewatering
  • Gravity separation
  • Electrostatic separation
  • Magnetic separation

Source: Source

Summary:

Northern Operations complex in Western Australia is consisted of the Cooljarloo dredge mine and floating heavy mineral concentration plant and the Chandala metallurgical site which includes a mineral separation plant and a synthetic rutile plant that produces synthetic rutile.

Two dredges in a single pond feed an ore slurry to a floating concentrator to produce HMC, which is hauled by trucks 110 km south to our Chandala metallurgical complex near Muchea, 60 km
north of Perth, for the recovery of ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon. Ilmenite is upgraded at Chandala to SR, a high-TiO2 feedstock for our Kwinana and other TiO2 pigment plants.

Processing - Both wet and dry mining techniques utilize wet concentrator plants to produce a high grade of heavy mineral concentrate (typically approximately 90% to 98% heavy mineral content). Screened ore is first deslimed, a process by which slimes are separated from larger particles of minerals, and then washed through a series of spiral separators that use gravity to separate the heavy mineral sands from lighter materials, such as quartz. Residue from the concentration process is pumped back into either the open pits or slimes dams for rehabilitation and water recovery. Water used in the process is recycled into a clean water dam with any additional water requirements made up from pit dewatering or rainfall.

Mineral Separation - The non-magnetic (zircon and rutile) and magnetic (ilmenite) concentrates are passed through a dry separation process, known as the “dry mill” to separate out the minerals. Electrostatic and dry magnetic methods are used to further separate the ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Electrostatic separation relies on the difference in surface conductivity of the materials to be separated. Conductive minerals (such as ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene) behave differently from non-conductive minerals (such as zircon) when subjected to electrical forces. Magnetic separation techniques are dependent on the iron content of a mineral. Magnetic minerals (such as ilmenite) will separate from non-magnetic minerals (such as rutile and leucoxene) when subjected to a magnetic field. A combination of gravity and magnetic separation is used to separate zircon from the non-magnetic portion of the heavy mineral concentrate.


Production:

CommodityUnits201820172016
Zircon kt 343441
Rutile kt 242832
Ilmenite kt 211243233
All production numbers are expressed as mineral in concentrate.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics20202019201820172016
Annual production capacity 35,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate35,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate35,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate35,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate35,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate
Annual production capacity 40,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate40,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate40,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate40,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate40,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate
Annual mining capacity 24 Mt of ore
Annual production capacity 220,000 t of ilmenite mineral in concentrate220,000 t of ilmenite mineral in concentrate220,000 t of ilmenite mineral in concentrate220,000 t of ilmenite mineral in concentrate

Reserves at December 31, 2020:
Containing leucoxene is reported included into rutile grade.
Total heavy minerals densities >2.85 g/cm3 regardless of commercial value.
Cut-off grade is 1.3% THM (approximately 1% VHM).

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 230 Mt Heavy Minerals 1.7 % 3.9 Mt
Proven 3.9 Mt Zircon 10.6 %
Proven 3.9 Mt Rutile 7.9 %
Proven 3.9 Mt Ilmenite 61.9 %
Probable 131 Mt Heavy Minerals 2 % 2.6 Mt
Probable 2.6 Mt Zircon 12.2 %
Probable 2.6 Mt Rutile 8.3 %
Probable 2.6 Mt Ilmenite 60.5 %
Proven & Probable 361 Mt Heavy Minerals 1.8 % 6.5 Mt
Proven & Probable 6.5 Mt Zircon 11.2 %
Proven & Probable 6.5 Mt Rutile 8.1 %
Proven & Probable 6.5 Mt Ilmenite 61.3 %


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of August 15, 2019:
Source: Source
HME TypeModelSizeQuantityLeased or
Contractor
Dredge 2
Excavator Komatsu PC2000 250 t 1 Leased
Truck (dump) Caterpillar 777D 100 t 4 Leased

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Mine Operations Manager Dennis Hunt LinkedIn Oct 1, 2021
Production Manager Mathew Brandt LinkedIn Oct 1, 2021
Site Director Ian Rennie LinkedIn Oct 1, 2021
Sr. Vice President Operations Russell Austin LinkedIn Oct 1, 2021

Staff:

Total WorkforceYear
144 2019

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Annual Report 2020
Form 10-K 2020
Form 10-K 2019
Press Release 2019
Form 10-K 2018
Form 10-K 2017
Form 10-K 2017
Sustainability Report 2013

News:

NewsDate
Weir improves Tronox’s asset management practices January 14, 2021

Aerial view:

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2017-2022 MDO Data Online Inc.