In Yesterdays The West Australian, Brockman Mining looks to be...

In Yesterdays The West Australian,

Brockman Mining looks to be pushing ahead with a staged development of its Marillana iron ore mine in the Pilbara with the signing of a logistics and infrastructure agreement with Qube Holdings.


The Chinese-controlled company, which is dual listed on the ASX and HKSE, this morning announced that it had signed a non-binding heads of agreement with Qube to provide logistics services for an initial small-scale (2.5mtpa) mining operation at Marillana, named the Maverick project.


The agreement comes despite the lowly iron ore price, which has already forced the suspension of several smaller mining operations in the Pilbara.


Brockman said the proposed mining operation at Maverick was subject to a final feasibility study and the receipt of any required approvals.


Brockman and Qube would then enter a logistics services agreement for the transportation and export of the company's iron ore through the Utah Point Port Facility at Port Hedland for a minimum of five years.


The agreement follows the recent State Government approval of the use of performance-based standard road trains on prescribed roads in the Pilbara.


“These new road trains with increased payloads have provided significant cost savings in road haulage and result in fewer vehicle movements on the State’s roads,” Brockman said in a statement.


“Qube is currently undertaking an approved trial to further increase vehicle payloads on designated routes in the Pilbara that have the potential to provide additional benefits to the Maverick project.”


Brockman has been investigating potential development options for a small-scale operation at Marillana to complement longer term plans for a 20mtpa operation based on rail haulage and a new, larger-capacity port development.


The company wants to begin construction of the mine in the first quarter of calendar 2017, with commissioning later that year.


It said the project was expected to generate up to 100 full time jobs during operations.


Chief executive Colin Paterson said Qube had established itself as an excellent logistics operator in the Pilbara.


“As well as generating cash flows for the Company, the Maverick project will also establish Brockman and the high quality Marillana product in the market place and will be a major step forward in commercialising the infrastructure solution for a larger-scale operation at Marillana,” he said.


Brockman said the Maverick project related to a very small portion of the total ore reserves at Marillana.


The pit design for Maverick involves the mining of 29.4 million tonnes of ore and 8.9 million tonnes of waste over an initial five-year period.


The ore would be beneficiated to produce 2.5 million tonnes of ore (wet) a year at grading of 60.5-61.5 per cent iron.


The ore would be trucked to the Utah Point Facility at Port Hedland for loading onto ships.


Brockman has estimated C1 free-on-board operating cost of $US35 a tonne, based on an exchange rate of $A1: $US0.70.



https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/31178984/brockman-lines-up-qube-for-marillana/