The mine is just 130km by sealed highway from the port of Cairns, and a 45 minute drive from Port Douglas. The north face of the open pit is visible from the highway into Mt Carbine.
Infrastructure in place
Mt Carbine has mains power and water, there is a small town adjacent to the minesite, and a ready pool of employees in the surrounding area.
Sheeted Quartz Vein
Mt Carbine tungsten deposit consists of a number of approximately vertical, sub-parallel quartz veins that host wolframite and scheelite mineralisation.
Wolframite and Scheelite
The ratio of wolframite to scheelite at Mt Carbine is thought to be around 80:20%. Mt Carbine is unusual in that both tungsten minerals occur together.
A Three-Step Production Plan
1. Tailings retreatment (for two years), to be followed by 2. processing of the existing stockpiles, leading to 3. hard rock mining for more than 10 years.
Ore Sorting
Ore sorting greatly reduces the amount of ore that has to be processed, reducing the size of the required processing plant, capital and operating costs.
The X-ray Ore Sorter
An X-Ray sorter was fed a 2000 tonne sub-sample of the main stockpile. Grade/recovery curves indicate an eight times upgrade of the feed is possible.
There are Two Significant Stockpiles
The main stockpile from previous mining operation contains approximately 12Mt at a grade of 0.075% WO3and the reject stockpile from the ore sorter has more than 4Mt.
Tailings Retreatment
A fines gravity recovery circuit using a Kelsey Jig will recover ~5000 mtu WO3 per month from the tailings.
