Cairn hill

The Cairn Hill Mine, that is a joint venture operation managed by Termite Resources NL for the partners IMX Resources (51 percent) and Sichuan Taifeng (49 percent), was commissioned in May 2010 and began production in December the same year. It is situated 55 kilometres south east of the opal mining town of Coober Pedy in north central South Australia.

Cain Hill Mine Established by Exact Mining Contractors
The Cairn Hill mine is operated as an open pit by mining contractor Exact Mining who were given the responsibility of establishing the mine site and constructing the 58 kilometre haulage road to the Rankin Dam Siding, from where the ore is taken by rail to Port Augusta for exporting to China by ship. Exact Mining also carry out the open pit mining operation at the Cairn Hill mine site which is undertaken by means of drilling and blasting before the ore is crushed and transported off the site.

Further Deposits Being Sought at Cairn Hill Mine
When working at full capacity the Cairn Hill Mine is able to produce 1.7 million tonnes of ore annually. The direct shipping ore (DSO) is regarded as being of premium quality copper-magnetite.
The current pit resource is 7.9 million tonne grading at 50.5 percent iron and 0.39 percent copper which gives the mine a life of around five years. However, a large deposit of iron oxide, copper and gold mineralisation has been discovered at depth below the resource being currently mined from the results of historical drilling programs. This deposit is in a zone 250 metres below the current mine floor and diamond drilling is planned to take place from April 2013 to further prove the full extent of this resource, which has the potential to extend the life of mine substantially.

The Cairn Hill deposit is primarily magnetite iron with a copper and gold content that accounts for about one third of production value. It is classified by geologists as magnetite that was formed around the same time as the hematite deposit at Prominent Hill and Olympic Dam that hosts a copper-gold ore body.

DSO Ore Mined at Cairn Hill is Shipped Directly to China
The ore mined at Cairn Hill, after being taken to Port Augusta for export to China 879 kilometres to the south of the mine site, is stockpiled in containers before being loaded directly onto ships via a rotating containerised ore loading facility. Two full shipments a month of Cairn Hill ore is shipped out of Port Augusta in this manner. The ore from the Cairn Hill Mine is found to be desirable in China because of its soft course grained quality and its high copper value.

IMX Resources Encourage Workers to Re-locate to Coober Pedy
IMX Resources Limited have built their fly in fly out accommodation village within the Coober Pedy township to ensure the town gets the most benefit possible from the Cairn Hill Mine being so close. Workers are encouraged to re-locate to Coober Pedy with their families, whenever possible, by offering them a $10,000 a year allowance above their normal earnings to do so. By doing this the company believes it will boost the local economy by supporting local businesses which in turn will create flow on employment opportunities.

The Cairn Hill Mine employs about 200 people with many of these housed in the 66 person fly in fly out accommodation village at Crowder's Gully, the site of the first opal field in Coober Pedy that opened in 1916.
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