Overview

The growth in demand for iron ore from China and other countries in the Asian region has seen investment in new iron ore projects within Australia reach record levels. This demand and the natural and infrastructure constrains on supply has seen unprecedented price increases for iron ore.

This demand has been the catalyst for the Southdown Magnetite Deposit to be fully evaluated for the potential development of a significant mining operation.

Magnetite is a form of iron ore. Magnetite is the most magnetic of all the naturally occurring minerals on Earth, and these magnetic properties allow it to be readily refined into an iron ore concentrate.

Since acquiring the project in November 2003, Grange Resources Limited has expended over $28 million doing a feasibility study on developing a mine at Southdown to produce iron ore concentrate for processing into iron ore pellets at a new pelletizing plant to be built by the company at Kemaman on the East coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Pelletizing of iron ore concentrate produces spheres of typically 8 to 18 mm diameter. The process combines agglomeration and thermal treatment to convert the concentrate into pellets with characteristics appropriate for use in a blast furnace or direct reduction steel making process.

Click here to download the Southdown Magnetite and Kemaman Pellet Plant Project brochure (249.35 Kb)