Project Infrastructure
The Project is located 14km from the rural and mining township of Yalgoo, which is expected to house the mining and operations staff for the Yogi mine and beneficiation plant.
A natural gas pipeline passing through the project area in close proximity to the proposed plant site will have sufficient capacity to provide gas for the generation of electricity for the beneficiation plant and the mine.
Electricity demand of approximately 15MW would be supplied by a gas fired power station contracted on a build, own and operate basis.
The Geraldton – Mount Magnet highway, passing through the Yogi project site, is a sealed road freight corridor suitable for road trains, providing an excellent quality, low capital cost opportunity for the transportation of magnetite iron concentrate to the Eradu.
It is anticipated that enough fresh water (~750ppm TDS) will be available within the Yogi area to meet the project needs.
There is an airfield at Yalgoo that can meet fly-in Fly-out workforce requirements, urgent logistical needs and is suitable for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in emergency situations.
In general, Yogi operations staff would be housed at Yalgoo, with tourist type coaches providing pick-up services from Geraldton and major regional centres if a demand arises. Costings have also assumed much of the workforce will be on a fly-in fly-out basis to Perth.
The Port of Geraldton is expected to have the capacity and materials handling capability to provide for the unloading, storage and ship loading of the MPI.
MPI does not generate dust and will not contaminate ship loading equipment used in the handling of other products through the port. Therefore there will be no requirement for a dedicated berth or specialist loading equipment.
The proposed MPI plant site at Eradu is a unique 200Ha block of cleared land that has road, rail and natural gas immediately adjacent to its boundaries. Water is also available from bore fields located south of the site. A light electricity line also crosses the site and will provide potential black start power and/or construction power. Electricty for the plant operations will be generated on site from the natrual gas.
MPI production will rely on a combination of natural gas and coal as the major external consumables. The Company is investigating the cost benefit of using either the lower grade Western Australian coals or the higher grade (but more expensive) coal sourced from the east coast of Australia. Coal imports can be handled through the Port of Geraldton, if required, or railed from Collie to Eradu.
