East End No.5 Mine Project
Cement Australia (Exploration) Pty Ltd and Cement Australia (Queensland) Pty Ltd have made a joint mining lease application. Both companies are part of the Cement Australia Group.
The Cement Australia Group mines limestone and clay at the East End Mine for manufacturing cement clinker at Fisherman’s Landing north of Gladstone. The East End Mine is located seven kilometres south-west of Mount Larcom and commenced mining operations in 1980. This has mainly been carried out on Mining Lease (ML) No. 3631, which adjoins the proposed mining lease (MLA80156) to the north-west.
Cement Australia (Exploration) has identified significant resources within the proposed mining lease. The resource is located close to existing mine infrastructure and includes rail loops, railways, road access, rail loading plant and ancillary mine facilities.
As the resource adjoins the current East End Mine, its exploitation would involve an extension of the existing mining operations to the south-east across the common lease boundary. The same open cut mining methods currently employed on ML3631 would be used on the new lease.
This includes progressively removing the upper top soil layer and vegetation, mainly pasture grass, then either reusing the top soil for rehabilitation works or stockpiling for future rehabilitation use. Clay overburden would be removed by hydraulic excavator or front end loader into haul trucks and then transported to the primary crusher or adjacent surge pile on ML3631. Underlying clay and limestone, and massive limestone strata, would be fragmented by drilling and blasting then loaded out to the primary crusher pile by excavator, front end loader and haul truck combinations. Mining operations would be carried out below the water table, which would require the workings to be dewatered. No mineral processing would be carried out on the proposed lease. A series of benches, with elevations corresponding with those on ML3631, would be developed and advanced sequentially. Vertical separation between benches would be about 15 metres. Operational and final batter angles and bench widths would be designed to achieve the required level of safety.
The mining process would generate a quantity of material unsuitable for clinker production. These materials include:
- high alkali limestone
- volcanic rock, which occurs as dykes within the limestone deposit and sidewalls
- clay materials, either in excess of requirements or with unsuitable chemical characteristics.
These materials would be removed to ML80002 and ML80127, and stored for later use or rehabilitation. A water filled void would remain after mining.
Approximately 2.5 million tonnes of limestone and clay are mined annually and it is anticipated that this rate of mining would continue on the new lease. It is anticipated that mining would commence on the proposed mining lease in about five years.
No additional infrastructure or ancillary facilities are required apart from access and haul road construction, fencing and establishing environmental controls.
The Cement Australia Group has been granted approval to prepare a voluntary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project.
The final terms of reference for the EIS were issued to the proponent on 4 December 2009. The proponent will now prepare the draft EIS. The EIS will be available for public review and DERM’s chief executive will invite written submissions from any person in relation to the draft EIS in due course.
Copies of publicly available documents can be obtained by accessing the links below:
- Terms of reference (PDF, 355K)*
- Initial advice statement describing the project (PDF, 3.8M)*
- Public notice (s46 EP Act) (PDF, 28K)*
For further information about the EIS process for the East End No.5 Mine Project contact the EIS Co-ordinator.
* Requires Adobe Reader
Last updated 1 April 2010