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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-06 Daily Xml
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CAIRN HILL

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:47): Will the Minister for Mineral Resources and Development please provide the chamber with details of proposals to mine iron ore from Cairn Hill near Coober Pedy?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for his question and for his interest in this subject. I am delighted to inform members that IMX Resources has been granted a mining lease for its iron ore project at Cairn Hill near Coober Pedy in the state's north.

Termite Resources N.L., a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of IMX Resources N.L., was granted the mining lease by the Department for Primary Industries and Resources (PIRSA) for the Cairn Hill project. This announcement is an important milestone for South Australia as the Cairn Hill project is the first new iron ore mining project outside of the Whyalla region. Of course, in many ways, that is really where the steelmaking industry in this country began.

The Cairn Hill project is a high-grade iron ore-copper-gold project located 55 kilometres south-east of Coober Pedy. The lease was granted by PIRSA after an initial mining lease application in January 2008. The planned development of the Cairn Hill iron ore mine comes close on the heels of other mining projects in South Australia, such as the Prominent Hill copper-gold mine and OneSteel's Project Magnet. With an expectant 5½ year mine life, there will be significant opportunities for IMX Resources to further expand its South Australian operation.

I congratulate IMX Resources on its diligence and commitment to working closely with PIRSA to ensure the Cairn Hill project meets best practice standards. The decision to develop Cairn Hill near Coober Pedy follows the recent announcement of the company's partnership with China's Tonghua Iron and Steel Mining Ltd. IMX Resources will ship ore from the project to China for processing into a high-grade magnetite concentrate and a copper-gold concentrate.

Trial mining at Cairn Hill is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2008 after all statutory approvals are finalised. IMX Resources has completed a mining and rehabilitation program (MARP) for its early works program. The company expects to shortly launch a MARP for the haul road and the four extractive mining operations. Importantly, IMX Resources also has native title agreements covering the mining lease, haul road routes and rail siding. This is further evidence that South Australia's mining boom is not simply confined to investment in exploration. A handful of projects, which led to $303 million worth of investment in mineral resources exploration in South Australia in 2007, are now moving toward the construction stage.

The Cairn Hill mine, once operating, is expected to provide employment for 125 people on-site, with about 100 people being employed during the construction phase. Whether it is Project Magnet at Whyalla, Oxiana's development of a copper/gold mine at Prominent Hill, or the latest development by IMX at Cairn Hill, mineral projects are now beginning to come online, generating jobs and exports for South Australia. I congratulate IMX on this landmark step in its development of Cairn Hill.

The granting of the mining lease again highlights South Australia's strong encouragement of our minerals sector, underpinned by sensible and effective pro-mining government policies. The mineral industry's new-found confidence in South Australia is also delivering an unprecedented pipeline of new mines and new mining proposals. PIRSA is case-managing this second wave of 30 new advanced projects and developments, representing a possible investment of $25 billion in capital investment for the state, and Cairn Hill is just the latest.

These projects will create substantial regional employment opportunities and new start-up industry developments across the state in the service and supply of specialist skills training sectors. I look forward to informing members of further developments in the mineral resources sector as the historic level of investment and exploration in this state is gradually transformed into the sorts of mining projects that will underpin South Australia's economic prosperity.

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