Home
Page
Iron Ore Mine
Savage River's history
really dates from the 1950s. Exploration of the area's ore bodies did not begin
until the mid- 1950s.
Construction of Savage River Mine began in 1965: (Barb here from 1967-69 and lived at 17 Meredith Cresent) The new, internationally-owned Savage River Mines iron ore mining, concentrating and pelletizing project, built and operated by Pickands Mather & Co. International, was dedicated March 6 at Port Latta, Tasmania, Australia. Construction of the $79 million project began in 1965 and involved an open pit mine and concentrating plant plus a complete town for about 350 employees at Savage River; a 53-mile pipeline to transport the concentrates; a pelletizing plant and shipping facilities at Port Latta, which is on Bass Strait separating Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The project has a rated capacity of 2.25 million Ltpy of high-grade magnetite pellets, which will be sold to five Japanese steel companies under 20-year contracts. The open pit mine is located in the central portion of the Savage River deposits. Mining equipment, capable of moving 10 million tpy of ore and overburden, consists of four 6-cu yd electric shovels and 12 50-ton trucks. The concentrating plant, with a design capacity of 5 million tpy of ore, will use magnetic separators to upgrade the ore, which averages 38% iron, to a concentrate averaging 67% iron.
Population: 1700
at its peak in the 1970s and '80s.
Industries: Iron ore mining.
Amenities: In the peak mining era: supermarket, fruit and vegetable
store, butcher shop (Barb worked here), credit union and bank, swimming
pool, squash centre, medical centre, district high school, motor-inn, numerous
sporting clubs.
NOW - Population: None full-time. Miners and staff live on site during
their shift.
Industries: Iron-ore mining.
Amenities: Australian Bulk Minerals' lodge, former school now single men's
quarters.
History:
In 1876-77 iron
deposits were discovered in the Savage River and gold in Whyte River. From 1919
to 1926 iron deposits investigation found ore grade too low for mining to be
economically feasible. Pickands Mather study in 1965 showed the ore could be
extracted and refined into pellets for transport. Savage River mines began
operations in 1967. Savage River township established and an 85km slurry
pipeline built to the pelletising plant at Port Latta on the North-West coast.
Australian Bulk Minerals took over in 1996, implementing a $500 million
development programme.
|
Resumption of Operations at Savage River
In 1996, the operators of the Savage River iron ore
mine in northwest Tasmania
Australian Bulk Minerals was invited to carry out a due diligence on the orebody and facilities with a view to acquisition and resumption of operations. Minserve was engaged to manage the due diligence and the subsequent feasibility study. The work was carried out in the second half of 1996, with the feasibility study being delivered in December. Operations at the mine recommenced in late 1997. The operation lies some 100 kilometres south of the port of Burnie on the north coast of Tasmania. Run of mine ore from the open cut is concentrated on site in a wet magnetic separation process and concentrate is pumped through an 83 kilometre pipeline to Port Latta, where it is pelletised prior to export. The mine is located in an environmentally sensitive area close to the Pieman National Park. As the name implies the site is adjacent to the Savage River, which crosses the orebody between the two major pits. Therefore as a result of the geography of the deposit, and because of concerns about the impact of earlier activities, environmental concerns played a significant part in feasibility work. In essence, it was proposed to redesign the approach to mining and other aspects of the operation. At the same time many of the maintenance and overhead expenses, which had added considerably to production costs, were reduced or eliminated.
|
|
ceased
mining operations and planned to end all activities on the site in the first
quarter of 1997 after almost 30 years of production. The orebody was known
to extend beyond the floor and into the walls of the existing pits, and the
associated facilities were in reasonable condition, although proper
maintenance had been somewhat lacking in the later years.