IMX Resources’ Cairn Hill mine will be the first mine in Australia to use B20 biodiesel from the mining operation right through to the loading of the ore into the vessels in Adelaide. The resulting greenhouse gas (ghg) savings are almost 2,300 t/y of CO2. Duncan McBain, Managing Director, said “The commitment by our service contract providers to the best environmental outcome has been exceptional and demonstrates how fortunate IMX has been with its choice of project partners.”
IMX understands Cairn Hill will be the first mining project to operate from pit to port solely on B20 biodiesel (20% biodiesel and 80% mineral diesel). B20 biodiesel is the maximum level of biodiesel mandated for use in Australia. IMX will provide the B20 biodiesel for the use on site by Exact Mining Services mining, drill and blast, crushing, off road haulage and rail loading services. At full production IMX expects to use approximately 6 million litres per year.
Specialised Bulk Rail (SBR), a company related to SCT Logistics, is using four fuel efficient 3,356 kW AC locos for the rail haulage task to Port Adelaide. SBR will become the first rail operator in Australia to operate its locos on B20 biodiesel. It is expected that SBR will use some 8 million litres per year.
DP World Adelaide, who will provide the logistics at Port Adelaide and load the vessels, has recently signed with Logicoil for the supply of biodiesel. DPW Adelaide will use biodiesel for the IMX contract. All the B20 biodiesel supplied to IMX and its supply partners will be provided by Logicoil. In addition tankers transporting the biodiesel to the Cairn Hill mine also run on B20 biodiesel and will consume 100,000 litres per year.
In total the Cairn Hill pit to port solution will use approximately 15.6 million litres per year for an annual saving of 2,294 t CO2.
In addition to the environmental benefits of using a biodiesel blend, there are also important import substitution and balance of payment benefits by using a biodiesel made from Australian sourced tallow in South Australia.
The Cairn Hill project, 55 km southeast of Coober Pedy, South Australia is a unique magnetite Fe/Cu/Au deposit close to the Darwin to Adelaide railway line. Phase 1, which is in production, is a DSO magnetite project. Test work indicates that the ore produces a premium coarse grained magnetite product, with a clean saleable Cu/Au concentrate. IMX has a Phase 1 life of mine sales offtake agreement with Jilin Tonghua Iron & Steel (Group) Mining for the DSO magnetite production. Beyond Phase 1, preliminary metallurgical test work has been completed
on Phase 2 of the project targeted at producing a premium grade magnetite concentrate, with the calculation of the resource for this phase in progress.