Venture Minerals Limited (Venture) has awarded preferred tenderer status to a major local civil and mining contractor for the recommencement of the Riley Iron Ore Mine (Riley).
Venture’s 100 per cent owned Riley DSO Deposit is located in north-western Tasmania, approximately 10 kilometres from Venture’s Mt Lindsay Tin-Tungsten Deposit.
Riley has reserves of 1.8 Million tonnes at 57 per cent iron (Fe) with low impurities.
The deposit occurs as a hematite rich pisolitic and cemented laterite – all at surface.
Venture made the decision to place the Riley Iron Ore Mine in Care and Maintenance in 2014, shortly after it suspended operations.
Recent iron ore prices (as of Wednesday 31 July) are almost 70 per cent higher in AUD terms than upon the closing of Riley.
Since last December, the 62 per cent Fe price has increased more than 85 per cent in USD terms and with the recent events at Vales’ mine in Brazil, the Company indicates that these current price levels could be sustained for at least the near term.
Venture states that approximately 90 per cent of the equipment that was previously purchased for Riley is still on hand.
The Company has already undertaken extensive pre-production works at Riley in order to recommence operations – making the project a ‘quick to market’ opportunity.
Venture’s team of highly experienced mining professionals are continuing to work on updating the previous mining study so that a decision to recommence mining can be made at the earliest opportunity.
Following a favourable study outcome, Venture’s goal is to commence iron ore production in Q4 2019.
As part of the ongoing mining study update, last week one of Tasmania’s most experienced civil and mining contractors, Shaw Contracting (Shaw), secured preferred tenderer status for the recommencement of the mine.
Shaw previously worked with Venture when it commenced mining the Riley Iron Ore Mine in 2014.
Venture’s Managing Director, Andrew Radonjic, said that they are glad to welcome back the experience and knowledge of Shaw Contracting to the Riley Iron Ore project.
“The advantages of getting Shaw to pick up from where they left off will be a huge advantage to the recommencement timeline of the Mine,” he commented.