The Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) has achieved contractual close for a $150 million loan towards the development of the Coburn Heavy Mineral Sands (HMS) Project in Western Australia.
Coburn, 100 per cent owned by Strandline Resources Limited, is a world-class mineral sands deposit located 240 kilometres north of the Port of Geraldton.
According to an Updated Definitive Feasibility Study released in June 2020, Coburn has the potential to produce 58 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of zircon, 110 ktpa of ilmenite and 24 ktpa of rutile [1].
NAIF’s loan will be used for key project infrastructure including a processing plant and equipment. The project is expected to generate up to $922 million of net public benefit to the region over 25 years.
NAIF CEO, Chris Wade, said reaching contractual close is an important milestone and can act as a key driver for employment and economic growth.
“We look forward to NAIF’s funds flowing to the Coburn Project shortly,” he said.
Strandline’s Managing Director, Luke Graham, said the project will create approximately 300 direct jobs during the construction peak, 150 jobs during operations and will provide significant public benefits to the Gascoyne-Mid West regions of WA over its long +22 year mine life.
“Coburn is an exciting project, applying proven mining and rehabilitation methods combined with state-of-the-art processing and renewable energy technology to efficiently recover high-quality critical minerals,” Mr Graham said.
Construction activities at Coburn are gaining momentum. Early works packages are ramping up on-site, including the construction of the first stage workers camp, main access road and bulk earthworks clearing activities, as well as commissioning of the first production bore, amongst other activities.
Detailed design and equipment procurement is also progressing as planned, including the early manufacturing of long lead items such as processing plant spirals required for the Wet Concentration Plant and in-pit dozer mining units.