Plans unveiled for zirconia mine
Alkane Resources has submitted the concept plans for the mine, which will extract about 400,000 tonnes of ore a year.
Managing director Ian Chalmers says the company has also secured a $95 million deal with a European processor to buy the rare metal niobium, which will also be mined at the site.
He says the next phase of the project is ensuring the mine meets the New South Wales Government’s development criteria.
“We present the project to them as well, take them around them around the local area, show them what the existing environment’s like, where the areas it will impact,” he said.
“Then they come back and over a period of a month or two after that the director-general of each department issues us with a set of requirements that we have to then make sure that we cover in our environmental impact statement.”
He says the concept plan is the first step in the approval process.
“It’s really just an explanation of the project but what it does do is it starts the process within the government departments in terms of all the environmental work that has to be done and the approvals process, so it’s a very important first step which then leads to ultimately lodging the environmental impact statement with the Government,” he said.
