Projects
Projects
Koolanooka/Blue Hills (Haematite)
Sinosteel Midwest’s Koolanooka / Blue Hills (Mungada) Direct Shipping Iron Ore (DSO) Project commenced operations in early 2010. The project involves the mining, crushing, screening and transport of iron ore from three existing pits in the Koolanooka and Blue Hills region, to the Geraldton Port.
The Koolanooka mine site is located approximately 160km south east of Geraldton and 20km east of Morawa, and the Mungada East and Mungada West mine sites are located 60km to the east of Koolanooka.
Mining, crushing, haulage and shipment of ore is planned over five years, with a total of 4.33Mt of ore produced at Koolanooka and 3.18Mt at Mungada East and West.
Koolanooka (Magnetite)
The proposed Koolanooka Magnetite project forms the second stage in the development of the Koolanooka resource, and is based on the export of concentrates / iron pellets manufactured from magnetite iron ore.
This project area is based at the historical Koolanooka mine site approximately 190 km east of Geraldton and 20km east of the Morawa townsite.
Weld Range
The Weld Range project is Midwest's flagship Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) project. It is located 65 km southwest of Meekatharra and 50 km northwest of Cue in Western Australia. The Weld Range Project is expected to produce 15 million tonnes per annum and will be a cornerstone project to export out of the proposed Oakajee Port. The project is at a well advanced stage of a Bank Feasibility Study which is due for completion in July 2010 and should be ready for production by 2013.
Jack Hills
The project area is located within the Archaean-aged Jack Hills Greenstone Belt approximately 380km north east of Geraldton in the Mid West region of WA.
Jack Hills has an initial JORC compliant Inferred Mineral Resource of 15.4Mt at an average grade of 59.7% Fe, using a cut off grade of 50% Fe with an exploration target of 36Mt of DSO. The Inferred Mineral Resource estimate relates to mineralised lenses at the Matthew Ridge, Dead Goat Hill and Taylor Range Prospect hematite deposits encompassing exploration tenure held by Midwest in the Jack Hills project area. The estimate has delineated eight separate resource areas.
Robinson Range
Sinosteel Midwest is in the early stages of exploration at its Robinson Range project, approximately 120km north of Meekatharra, in Western Australia, which it is developing for iron ore and manganese potential.
A detailed mapping and surface sampling program produced rock chip samples which returned average assay ranges of 59.2% to 63.4% Fe with acceptable levels of deleterious contaminant elements occurring over substantial strike lengths.
Rail & Port Infrastructure
A crucial element in the development of the iron ore industry in the mid west region is the construction of a new deep water port and connecting standard gauge railway of approximately 465 kms.