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.

Mining in these pits was previously carried out in the 1960s and 1970s by Western Mining (as part of the GOJV). The project is expected to have low environmental impact, because planned mining activities will extend existing open pits, or be carried out in previously disturbed mining areas.

To download a fact sheet on the Koolanooka / Blue Hills (Hematite) project, click here.