Mining activities are planned to kick off in mid 2013 with the removal of top soil and overburden and preparation of the ore body for mining.

It is anticipated that traditional drill, blast and haulage techniques will be used to mine the DSO material and the magnetite. The mined material will be hauled to the relevant primary crushing section and tipped into the crusher pocket. Wet or over sized material will be dumped on a Run of Mine stockpile for pre-treatment before being fed into the primary crushing sections. Waste material will be stored in pre-defined facilities that will be rehabilitated as per the environmental management plan.

The DSO process is expected to be a simple primary and secondary crushing and screening operation to produce a lump, -32 mm +8 mm, and fines -8 mm, product. The lump and fines product will be stacked in 200,000 t stockpiles. The products will be reclaimed and loaded into ore wagons and transported to the ports. Refer Figure 1

The completed Davis-Tube test-work results have indicated that standard size reduction and magnetite separation processes will produce a DRI quality concentrate with grades of +68% Fe and low impurity levels.

The primary crushed material will be stockpiled prior to being control fed to the Autogenous Mills. The mill product will be screened and oversize will be either returned to the mill feed or further reduced in size by pebble crushers. The screen undersize will be pumped to the primary classification cyclones. The course cyclone underflow will return to the mill feed.

The non-magnetic material in the cyclone overflow will be discarded by the primary magnetic separators and will report to the tailings thickener.

The magnetic fraction will be further classified by secondary classification cyclones. The coarse fraction, or cyclone underflow, will undergo further size reduction in a ball mill. The ball mill product will be sized in the secondary classification cyclones.

The secondary classification cyclone overflow, containing the magnetic material of nominally P100 65 microns, will be thickened and filtered to produce a concentrate product. The concentrate will be stored in a covered stockpile before being reclaimed and loaded into the ore wagons for transport to the port. Refer Figure 2

Train consists, comprising of 240 wagons and locomotives, will be able to be loaded at each train load out facility. The train loops will be designed to allow simultaneous loading.
 
A separate logistics rail spur will be provided to facilitate cargo and fuel handling without affecting ore train loading. A crane and lay down area will be located on the logistics rail spur to allow the offloading and reloading of containers and goods. A satellite train control centre and emergency maintenance facility will be located off the logistics spur.

Start-up power to the facilities will be supplied by means of a diesel fired power plant, however the design will allow for tie in capabilities to future national power supplies. Fuel will be delivered by a fuel train, from the port, and stored in a bulk fuel farm, which will supply the entire mine site with fuel.

Local workshops and maintenance facilities will cater for the primary crushing and train load out requirements.

The mining and primary crushing processes will share common support services, which will include;

• access control
• administration facilities
• changing areas 
• medical treatment facility
• emergency response
• training facilities
• accommodation and recreational facilities
• bulk stores
• bulk fuel storage 
• light vehicle workshops
• potable water
• mobile cranes

The permanent work force will operate on a 2 on and 1 off, fly in fly out (FIFO) cycle. The operations will be based on a 2 X 12 hours shift and will require three work crews to meet the requirements.

An accommodation village will support the mine site operations.