Paradise South Phosphate Project
Project Summary
Legend International Holdings, Inc. (Legend) proposes to develop the Paradise South Phosphate Mine. The open-cut pit mine would extract up to seven million tonnes a year of run-of-mine (ROM) phosphate bearing ore. The mine site (mining lease application (MLA) 90197) is located 135 km north-west of Mount Isa. The expected life of the project would be 21 years at maximum production rates. The project includes a beneficiation plant from which product would be transported by slurry pipeline to Mount Isa and then by rail to the Port of Townsville for export. Concentrated phosphate ore may also be transported by road to Mount Isa.
Major elements of the project would include:
- an open-cut phosphate mine and beneficiation plant
- a 20 km power transmission line from the Mica Creek to Century Zinc transmission line to the beneficiation plant
- a 142 km slurry pipeline from the beneficiation plant to the slurry dewatering facility 10 km south of Mount Isa and a return pipeline carrying water back to the mine site
- a rail load-out and slurry dewatering facility 10 km south of Mount Isa
- a 2500 million litres per annum (ML/a) yield water supply dam
- a purpose-built accommodation facility near the mine.
Environmental Protection Act 1994
An application was made by the proponent under section 70 of the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EP Act) for the preparation of a voluntary environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project. This application was approved by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM). The terms of reference (TOR) for the EIS were finalised following public notification on 25 November 2010. Legend submitted an EIS in August 2011 and DERM decided that the EIS could proceed to notification (sections 51 & 52) on 7 October 2011.
Public Notification of EIS
The process for the assessment of this project is as follows:
The proponent has submitted an EIS addressing the requirements of the final TOR. The EIS is currently available for review, and anyone may make a submission to the chief executive about the submitted EIS. A copy of the EIS can be viewed at:
Department of Environment and Resource Management
Level 3, 400 George Street
BRISBANE QLD 4000
Department of Environment and Resource Management
Corner Camooweal and Mary streets
MOUNT ISA QLD 4825
An electronic copy of the EIS is available from the Legend website at: www.lgdi.net. A DVD copy can be obtained by contacting Legend administration on telephone (07) 4744 4200.
Submissions may be made about the EIS from Monday 24 October 2011 until close of business on Friday 2 December 2011. Submissions should be addressed to:
The Chief Executive
Attention: The EIS Coordinator, Paradise South Phosphate Project
Environment and Natural Resource Regulation Division
Department of Environment and Resource Management
GPO Box 2454
Level 8, 400 George Street
BRISBANE QLD 4001
Comments may also be emailed to eis@derm.qld.gov.au.
The chief executive will accept all properly made submissions, and may accept written submissions even if they are not properly made.
A properly made submission is one that:
is written
is signed by or for each person (‘signatory’) who made the submission
states the name and address of each signatory
is made to the chief executive and
is received on or before the last day of the submission period.
Please note that it is a statutory requirement that all submissions will be forwarded to the proponent so that they may consider them and provide a response to DERM.
Additional Information
Copies of publicly available documents can be obtained by accessing the links below:
Final terms of reference (PDF, 234K)*
Initial advice statement (Project description) (PDF, 1.7M)*
Public notice (s51&52 EP Act) (PDF, 68K)*
EIS (www.lgdi.net)
For further information about the EIS process for the Paradise South Phosphate Project, please contact the EIS Coordinator.
* Requires Adobe Reader
Last updated 20 October 2011