Carrapateena mine

The Carrapateena mine is a large copper mine under development 100 km southeast of Olympic Dam in South Australia's Far North region. Carrapateena represents one of the largest copper reserves in Australia and in the world having estimated reserves of 292 million tonnes of ore grading 1.31% copper and 3.64 million oz of gold.[1] It was discovered by explorer and metallurgist Rudie Gomez in 2005. The project was acquired by OZ Minerals in 2011,[2] and the project was referred to the EPBC Act for Federal environmental approval in 2012. Construction of the decline to access the mine commenced in 2016. The mining technique used to extract the ore is sub-level caving.[3]

Carrapateena mine
Location
Carrapateena mine
Carrapateena mine
South Australia
CountryAustralia
Coordinates31°14′S 137°30′E
Production
ProductsCopper
Owner
Websitewww.ozminerals.com/operations/carrapateena-project/

The Tjati decline was officially opened in November 2016.[4] The company expected that it would take two years to complete excavation of the decline[5] which is 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) long and descends 600 metres (2,000 ft).[4] The mine owners also have a signed agreement with the traditional owners of the land, the Kokatha people.[5] The company announced board approval for continued development on 24 August 2017, expecting to spend A$916 million on development before the mine would begin to produce ore in late 2019.[6] The first copper concentrate was produced in December 2019, by which time the mine had cost between $950 million and $980 million.[7]

Mine life is forecast to be about twenty years. During the construction time for the decline, surface construction continued. This included an accommodation village and airstrip in 2017-2018. They were followed by processing plant, access road and electricity infrastructure from mid-2018 and installation of underground materials handling. The mine site is on Pernatty Station with other infrastructure on Oakden Hills Station.[8]

Construction of the airstrip was completed in July 2018 with the village providing 550 accommodation rooms completed about a month later.[9] Cobham Aviation Services provides fly-in fly-out services between Adelaide, Port Augusta and Carrapateena since October 2018 using an RJ-100 aircraft.[10] It operates 14 flights per week on the route.[11]

The Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation (PEPR) for the mine was approved by the state government on 29 March 2018.[12] Downer EDI was then awarded the contract to take over from PYBAR Mining services to continue underground mining operations from 1 July 2018. Downer is also a joint venture partner in the engineering, procurement and construction of above ground facilities.[13]

References
  1. "Iron oxide deposits in the world" (PDF). ethesis.helsinki.fi. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-09. Retrieved 2013-07-04.
  2. Carrapateena project OZ Minerals (Accessed 2013-12-26)
  3. "Carrapateena | OZ Minerals". www.ozminerals.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  4. "Media Release - OZ Minerals opens its Carrapateena Decline". Regional Development Australia Far North. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  5. "Oz Minerals closes in on SA copper mine". Sky News. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  6. "Green-light for $900m mine just the start of copper boom, Govt declares". InDaily. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  7. Changarathil, Valerina (20 December 2019). "OZ Minerals' Carrapateena mine produces first saleable copper". The Advertiser.
  8. "Carrapateena". OZ Minerals. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  9. England, Cameron (19 July 2018). "OZ Minerals says its Carrapateena mine is still on track for copper production next year". The Advertiser. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  10. "Cobham wins FIFO contract with OZ Minerals". Cobham Aviation Services. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  11. Green, Amy (21 November 2018). "Cobham Aviation Services has secured a three year contract with OZ Minerals". The Transcontinental. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  12. "Approved PEPRs". Government of South Australia, Department of the Premier and Cabinet. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  13. Green, Amy (18 April 2018). "Carrapateena contract awarded". The Transcontinental. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
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