MINERAL SANDS
VICTORIA TURNS THE SANDS OF TIME
The Victorian mineral sands industry holds the potential to satisfy a growing market on a global stage. How will the state make the most of this opportunity?
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ictoria may be historically known as a gold mining state, but it is the mineral sands sector that could shape its future. Australia’s mineral sands endowment includes an estimated 274 million tonnes (Mt) of ilmenite, 79Mt of zircon and 35Mt of rutile. Of these resources, Victoria holds 23 per cent of the country’s ilmenite, 42 per cent of its zircon and 55 per cent of its rutile – ranking second, first and first, respectively, among Australian states. Once processed, the minerals are widely used in products such as paint, paper, plastics, ceramics and welding materials, plus a range of clean energy technologies. Reasons both environmental and economic are what motivate companies like Iluka Resources and Astron Corporation to develop their respective resources in western Victoria. Iluka owns the WIM100 zircon and rare earth minerals deposit in the Wimmera region, 300 kilometres west of Melbourne, and has operated in the state for almost 20 years. The company also owns several similar WIM-style tenements nearby – known for their fine grain characteristics – but industry has been stalled by the difficulty in processing such resources. As the zircon within some of western Victoria’s mineral sands deposits contains impurities – including the 200Mt WIM100 deposit – companies like Iluka are faced with a significant technological challenge. Iluka chief financial officer and head of development Adele Stratton says the ability to process the minerals is key to the project’s feasibility. “Without purification, the zircon is ineligible for the ceramics market. Ceramics account for approximately 50 per cent of the global zircon market and a zircon project that is ineligible for this market is not viable unless an economic means of purification is confirmed,” Stratton says. “Iluka has invested considerably in
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developing such a solution over a number of years and continues to make pleasing progress.” Nearby, Donald Mineral Sands (DMS) was created as a subsidiary of Astron, which has owned the Donald mineral sands project since 2004. Just 90 kilometres northeast of WIM100, the Donald project has its own 5.4Mt of zircon, 9.2Mt of ilmenite, 8Mt of titanium products rutile and leucoxene, and 491,000 tonnes of rare earth elements. DMS managing director Tiger Brown says the company has so far been happy with its efforts to develop a processing solution. “Through the advancement of spiral technologies, commercial recovery questions
have been addressed,” Brown says. “Using specially adapted spirals for the fine-grained material, Astron has conducted pilot test work to concentrate the ore to a heavy mineral concentrate and then undertake mineral separation to final products with high recovery levels.” Not only can these resources be a cause for the state’s economic growth, but their end-use could be vital for the wider environment and society. Brown says DMS would be proud to see its resources put towards the production of a range of green technologies, which in turn could facilitate the ongoing development of the 40-year mine resource. “These elements have many different
