EPCM for mineral sands operation in western NSW, Australia

The Snapper Mineral Sands Project is an expansion of Bemax's mineral sands operation in the Murray Basin, New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Bemax, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is developing this mineral sands operation comprising a mine and treatment facilites at the site known as 'Snapper' near Pooncarie, NSW.

Bemax has asked Ausenco to carry out the EPCM required to take this heavy minerals contentrate (HMC) project into the production phase mid-2010.

The mineral sands mining and processing facility will be developed for the Snapper deposit, located approximately 70km north of Wentworth and 40km west of Pooncarie, NSW.  It is 10km southwest of the existing Ginkgo Mineral Sands Plant and Mine.

We have been engaged to provide the services for the engineering, procurement and construction management of the project.

Bemax has several substantial deposits in the area near Pooncarie.  Of these deposits, Ausenco successfully executed the stage one Ginkgo Mine site and the Broken Hill processing plant.

For the Snapper project, Ausenco is providing EPCM services to develop the plant and associated infrastructure which will result in a combined annual processing rate of 650,000tpa of HMC between the Ginkgo and Snapper mines.

The new Snapper project is a greenfield site with the HMC being brownfield.

The existing Ginkgo plant is similar to the Snapper project.  The Snapper project plant consists of but is not limited to the following:

• Dredge
• Floating concentrator plant (wet plant)
• HMC plant
• Booster pumps
• Water bores
• 10km 22kV high voltage supply overhead transmission line and associated substations
• Access/haulage roads
• Construction camp.