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The ground is being prepared for the return of mineral mining in South Australia's Murray Mallee region for the first time in eight years.
Key points:
- Murray Zircon says demand for mineral sands remains low, but that is expected to change soon
- The miner says it could be producing concentrate within the next six months
- The company says it will be operate at a significantly higher speed than it did previously
Murray Zircon ceased its operation in Mindarie in 2015 for a combination of reasons, including a depression in the mineral market.
But general manager Craig Easton said new opportunities had been identified near Jacka Road at Mercunda.
"We're in the process of finalising our government approvals," Mr Easton said.
"We're actually hoping we can start the preliminary work on mining in a couple of weeks' time, followed by working our way down to our oil body and beginning to produce a concentrate by the end of the first half of 2023."
Production will ramp up in June of 2023 at Mercunda, 134 kilometres east of Adelaide, with a mineral sand concentrate expected to be produced in coming months.
Murray Zircon will mine various mineral sands, including zircon, which is used in industrial ceramics.
Mr Easton said demand for mineral sands remained low, but was expected to increase in coming years.
"In the next two years a number of mines which are very pivotal in the heavy mineral concentrate market and mineral sand market are due to come offline," he said.
"There is not a backfill or a line of mineral sands mines to replace those, so while at the moment the supply of mineral sands or the ability to supply mineral sands is outstripping demand, that is certainly not going to be the case in 18 months or a year's time."
Where to find the mineral sand
The Mindarie "strands" that Murray Zircon used to operate from have been mined out, but new deposits have been observed.
"Our deposits exist in old beachfronts and old river beds that existed many thousands of years ago and over the time, as the waters and rivers have receded, these deposits have covered between 5 to 25 metres of surface materials," Mr Easton said.
"That receding process doesn't happen all at once, so there's a number of beachfronts or riverbeds that exist as you get closer to the sea."
The previous mining site was close to the operations centre, which meant the mining facility could pump the minerals directly to the Mindarie site.
"Now our designs and our operations are much larger than they were previously, so we're going to be mining 50 per cent faster than we did in the past," Mr Easton said.
"Our equipment and plant have been designed to be relocatable so that we're much more mobile in our operations and able to jump from location to location."
At least 30 jobs remain vacant at Murray Zircon, including mining and administration roles.