Dardanupdoral

The Dardanup-Doral mineral sands mine in southern Western Australia is owned by Japanese company, Iwatani International Corporation, through it wholly owned subsidiary, Doral Mineral Sands Pty Ltd. The mine produces ilmenite, zircon, rutile and leucoxene that is processed at the company's treatment plants at nearby Picton and Bunbury. The mineral sands mined at the Dardanup-Doral sand mining operation is used in industrial refractories, colours and ceramics.

The Dardanup-Doral Mine was Commissioned in 2002
The Dardanup-Doral open cut mine, 160 kilometres south of Perth, near the Ferguson River, was commissioned in 2002 It works 24 hours-a-day to keep feeding the mineral sands processing plant which processes around 15, 000 tonnes of zircon, 20,000 tonnes of HiTi 70, 5,000 tonnes of leucoxene and 110,000 tonnes of ilemenite annually for exporting to the United States, India and China. The first zircon shipment from the Dardanup-Doral Mine left the Fremantle port in August 2002. The following month saw the first shipment of ilmenite leave the Bunbury port.

Dardanup-Doral Minerals Separated With use of Gravity Technology
The mineral sands mined at the Dardanup-Doral operation are separated at the processing plant with the use of gravity technology that concentrates the heavy minerals from other sand and clay materials. The minerals are dried and separated into different products using electrostatic and magnetic techniques.

Work on Establishing the Dardanup-Doral Sand Mining Operation Began in 2001
The Dardanup-Doral sand mine was established in 2001 after the acquisition of mineral rights, a successful exploration program and land right agreements. The Picton dry processing plant also needed considerable refurbishment, along with the construction of a wet processing plant at the site as well as administration and support buildings.

Since it was established, the Dardanup-Doral open cut mineral sands mine has been subjected to many extension of the mining area as more worthwhile deposits became identified. One of the latest extensions was the Dardanup Southern Extension that guarantees the life of mine to at least mid 2014.

Dardanup-Doral Mineral Sands Taken by Truck to the Picton Plant
The mineral sand mined at the Dardanup-Doral operation produces a heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) that is taken by haulage truck to the Picton Dry Separation Plant situated 10 kilometres from the mine site. It is here where the magnetic separation process takes over. The Picton Dry Separation Plant is authorised to process 250,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate from the Dardanup-Doral Mine along with some external suppliers. The ore is progressively mined by means of a series of open cut operations, all using dry mining methods. The pits are continuously being de-watered to rid them of groundwater inflows that would otherwise interfere with the dry mining technique used at the site. The mining fleet at the Dardanup-Doral Mine consists of scrapers, bulldozers, dump trucks and excavators.
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