Gunson to finally get OK at CoburnKevin Andrusiak March 26, 2007...

Gunson to finally get OK at Coburn
Kevin Andrusiak
March 26, 2007

GUNSON Resources is believed to be on the verge of receiving a long-awaited mining green light from regulators for its Coburn mineral sands project in Western Australia's Gascoyne region.
The go-ahead for mining at the $100 million project could come within days for the Perth-based explorer after a four-year wait as authorities tinkered with Gunson's environmental obligations.
On January 2, Gunson received a slew of environmental approvals for the project, which is believed to be the third biggest undeveloped zircon deposit in the world.

The company also had local government approval to develop the mine, which would set a new benchmark for environmental performance should Gunson move to the production phase.

Gunson had to buy land surrounding the project to offset its mining practices and to safeguard the impact on the World Heritage-listed Shark Bay Marine Park.

The approvals are subject to an annual review where failure to meet environmental obligations could mean an instant termination of licences.

Gunson has already proved up the Amy Zone at Coburn which hosts heavy mineral sands over a 35km length with an average width of 3km at depths of between 10m and 50m. That could give Gunson a 20-year mine life on average zircon production of 60,000 tonnes a year.

The company expects to start mining at the rate of 30,000 tonnes of zircon a year, along with 60,000 tonnes of ilmenite as well as leucoxene and rutile, with the production rate to double in the third year of operation.

A report by Holst Research said the high zircon content of Gunson's Amy Zone at Coburn differentiated the project from many others and was its key attraction.

While new zircon supplies were coming on the market, global demand from the ceramic and zirconium chemicals market remained strong.

Holst said China - which imports around 90 per cent of its zircon needs and now accounts for a quarter of global usage - continued to be the major growth area.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au:80/story/0,20867,21443751-643,00.html