Koolanooka

Sinosteel Midwest Corporation Limited is the sole owner of the Koolanooka iron ore open pit mine located 20 kilometres east of Morawa and 226 kilometres east of Geraldton the the Mid West Region of Western Australia. The company has one of largest land holdings in the Mid West Region. The Koolanooka project was purchased by SinoSteel, one of China's largest suppliers of raw coal to Chinese steel mills, in 2008.

The Koolanooka Mine is Being Developed Alongside the Blue Hills Open Pit
The Koolanooka Mine was the first stage of Sinosteel's Koolanooka Blue Hills Project. The Blue Hills open cut, another iron ore operation, that includes the Mungada West and Mungada East open pit mines, is located 60 kilometres from the Koolanooka Mine. Both mines will produce over seven million tonnes of hematite direct shipping ore over a period of five years. An annual production of around 1.5 million tonnes. The ore from these mines is sufficient to guarantee a life of mine of five years. The ore once extracted from the pits is transported by road and rail to the port at Geraldton for export to Asia.

The First Shipment of Koolanooka Iron Ore Left Geraldton in 2010
Shipping of iron ore from the two Koolanooka open pit mines began in April 2010 and the first export shipment to China left the Geraldton Port in July the same year. The shipment departed Geraldton with 60,000 tonnes of iron ore on board.

Western Mining was the First to Mine Iron ore at Koolanooka
Iron ore mining at Koolanooka goes back to 1966 when Western Mining operated an open pit there until 1972. During that time a total of 6.7 million tonnes of iron ore was removed from the site. The current Koolanooka operation is an extension of the old open cut. The mine is regarded as having a low environmental impact owing to previous mining activities having taken place at the same site. The new operation will rehabilitate the old workings that were left, as the previous owners simply walked away at the time undertaking no rehabilitation work whatsoever.

Mining Operations at the Koolanooka Mine
The Koolanooka mining operation involves the mining of the South-fold Cutback. This being a small extension of the existing pit along with the mining of the Detritals pit, a rather shallow extension of about 10 to 35 metres on the south-western flank of the existing Koolanooka open pit.

The ore mined at the Koolanooka open pit is subjected to crushing and screening before being transported to Geraldton for storage to await shipping off shore. The waste is backfilled into the old workings or placed into waste dumps. No de-watering is necessary at the Koolanooka Mine because undertaken is above the water table.

MACA Contractors Operate the Koolanooka Open pit Mine
MACA contractors were awarded the contract to develop and conduct mining activity at the Koolanooka open pit iron ore mine on behalf of Sinosteel Midwest Corporation Limited. They have the contract until 2015 and employ 46 personnel on the job, drilling, blasting, loading, crushing, screening and hauling.
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