Name of the Project
Hawsons Iron project.

Location
Near Broken Hill, in New South Wales, Australia.

Project Owner/s
Hawsons Iron, formerly Carpentaria Resources.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study has shown the project has robust economics for the production of ten-million tonnes a year of Hawson’s Supergrade, with a product specification of 69.9% iron for a mine life of 20 years. The ore is to be mined and processed on site, with the final mineral concentrate being transported by slurry pipeline to a rail head site near Broken Hill.

The truck-and-shovel mining method will be used for prestripping and the early mine plan, while in-pit conveying will be used in Year 5 once meaningful depths have been reached. The plan is to use the conveyor for the vertical lift and the trucks for horizontal movement, maximising the use of comparatively cheap electrical power, and reducing truck hours and improving safety.

Following a prestrip of about 150-million tonnes, the life-of-mine waste:ore ratio is 0.40, dropping to near zero by Year 11.

A total of 1.41-billion tonnes of ore and 568-million tonnes of waste are mined after prestripping. A maximum mining rate of 152-million tonnes a year is expected to be achieved in Year 7. All major processing will occur in the magnetite concentrator at the mine site before transporting the concentrate in slurry from the railhead for dewatering. Tailings will be thickened and pumped to a circular tailings storage facility, and single-cell and perimeter discharge will be used.

Potential Job Creation
Hawsons is expected to create more than 1 200 jobs in construction, and 500 jobs in steady-state production.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a post-tax-geared net present value (NPV), at a 10% discount rate, of $1.09-billion and an internal rate of return of 30%.

Capital Expenditure
Preproduction costs have been estimated at $1.4-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Hawsons Iron has completed a comprehensive strategic review of the Hawsons project, including an evaluation of production scenarios and related capital costs, which has concluded that a modified bankable feasibility study (BFS) should assess an 11-million-tonne-a-year project.

The strategic review has also recommended a two-pronged action plan to improve the NPV of the project by further reducing processing plant capital costs and accessing higher-grade ore earlier to accelerate startup cash flow.

The value-engineering activities and first two stages of the resource analysis programme are expected to be completed during the June quarter of 2023, subject to weather and rig availability, with the objective of then securing a strategic partner to jointly fund a modified BFS, assessing an 11-million-tonne-a-year project.

Work on this modified BFS could then restart, targeting completion by the end of June 2024.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Hawsons Iron, tel +61 7 3220 2022.