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34 Independence Group NL
LONG OPERATION
Since October 2002, the Long Operation has produced over
2 Mt of nickel ore, producing over 100,000 contained nickel
metal tonnes. A commitment to brownfields exploration
has seen the discovery of the McLeay (2005) and Moran
(2008) ore bodies and has enabled the operation to
develop a reserve base. The nominal production rate
is 9,000 to 10,000 tonnes of contained nickel metal per
annum.
The Long Operation is comprised of both freehold land and
state mining leases. It sits within a region that has been,
and continues to be, subject to extensive exploration,
mining and ore processing activities. Our nearest
neighbours are other mining operations, which include the
BHP Billiton Nickel West Pty Ltd’s (BHPB’s) concentrator
facility and Gold Fields Australia Pty Ltd’s St Ives Gold Mine.
One of the noteworthy aspects of the Long Operation is
the presence of third party assets on the IGO property (e.g.
tailings lines run from BHPB’s concentrator facility to the
west of the Long Operation to the BHPB tailings storage
facilities located to the east of the Long Operation).
Given the long history of the Long Operation, and the
proximity and history of surrounding mining activities,
the greater area has been heavily impacted by mining
activities. Various parts of the property are also subject to
impacts caused by other parties.
A discussion of the key environmental impacts is
presented in the Environmental impacts section of this
report.
LOCATION
The Long Operation is located on the shores of Lake
Lefroy, approximately 3km east of Kambalda and 50km
south-south-east of Kalgoorlie.
The Long Operation comprises approximately 1,381 square
kilometres of tenements and sits within the traditional
lands of the Ngadju people.
BACKGROUND
IGO acquired the Long Operation from BHPB’s (formerly
WMC Resources Ltd) in September 2002. It had been
operated by WMC Resources since 1979 before being
placed into ‘care and maintenance’ in early-2000. The
mine was re-commissioned in October 2002 and has been
operating successfully since.
The workforce is largely residential in Kambalda and
Kalgoorlie with 13% being FIFO.
The Long Operation involves the underground mining of
ore and waste rock. Traditional stope and air leg mining
methods are employed. IGO has an off-take agreement
with BHPB where the ore produced from the mine is
delivered to their adjacent concentrator facility for toll
treatment and production of nickel concentrate. In FY2015,
the mine produced 258,634 tonnes of ore and 110,570
tonnes of waste rock.
The mining process at the Long Operation results in the
creation of underground voids. Where the surrounding
rock is also to be mined, these voids must be backfilled
to prevent the collapse of the new mining areas. This is
achieved by backfilling voids with a paste fill made from
cement and tailings sourced from the neighbouring St Ives
Gold Mine. This backfill material is manufactured on site
at our paste plant and pumped underground. At present
all exploration activity at Long Operation is conducted
underground.
2 Mt
production from the Long
Operation since 2002