Coburn

The Coburn Zircon sand mining project is located near the Western Australian coast, about 250 kilometres north of the port at Geraldton, just south of Shark Bay and the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The project covers an area of 1,200 square kilometres.

Coburn Zircon Project Owned by Strandline Resources Limited

The Coburn Zircon project owner, Strandline Resources Limited, will soon be ready to commence production at its zircon rich heavy mineral sands deposit having completed its Definitive Feasibility Study, as well as having all permits granted and about to begin construction work on the site. The sand mine, to be developed as an open pit, will have a life of mine of nearly 20 years. The mine will be able to produce a high quality final product that has been favourably endorsed after undergoing offtake agreements with companies such as DuPont.

All Approvals Have Been Obtained for Coburn Zircon to Proceed to Production Stage

The project has been successful in having all its environmental plans approved as have the required native title agreements been agreed to. Approvals to go ahead with construction have all been approved and all the necessary mining approvals have been secured. Construction work on the Coburn Zircon project site will take about 18 months to complete.

Coburn Zircon Deposit is Known as the Amy Zone

All Coburn Zircon project exploration to date has been restricted to the east of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Since 2000 exploratory drilling programs have isolated a major heavy mineral sand deposit that has been called the Amy Zone. This deposit has proven to be more than 35 kilometres in length, three kilometres in width and from 10 and 50 metres in thickness.The government has approved two thirds of this zone for mining purposes. The Amy Zone deposit has received a JORC compliant mineral sand reserve of 308 million tonnes averaging 1.2 percent heavy minerals, of this amount Zircon makes up 23 percent. Other heavy minerals present include; titanium ilmenite 48 percent, rutile seven percent and leucoxene five percent.

Large Northern end of Amy Zone yet to be Approved for Mining

The northernmost third of the Amy Zone is still to be approved for mining, however, exploratory drilling has shown a mineable heavy mineral resource exists there that totals 106 million tonnes containing 1.3 percent heavy minerals. On completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study in 2009, it was revealed that the Amy Zone would be able to support a long life, high volume, low cost mining operation able to produce high quality heavy mineral products.

Heavy minerals such as staurolite, kyanite, sillimanite, garnet, titanium dioxide and zircon are eroded from their host metamorphic, or igneous, rocks by weathering over long periods of time and taken by water, or wind, to accumulate in the one place as do placer deposits. When the sand contains enough concentrations of zircon and titanium dioxide they become known as heavy mineral sand deposits.

Most of the world's commercially viable heavy mineral sand deposits are found along old coastlines, especially where the coastline has been exposed to high wave activity and strong winds that have prevailed for extremely long periods of time. This is why beaches and offshore sand dune deposits are the main source of heavy mineral sand deposits. The Coburn deposit is located in a fossil sand dune system near the coast.