Nowa Nowa iron project
Gippsland Iron Pty Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastern Iron Limited) is planning to develop and operate the Nowa Nowa Iron Project (known as the Five Mile Deposit).
Some salient points about this proposal:
- It will be on public land (state forest to the north of Nowa Nowa)
- It will be an open cut mine and the footprint of the actual mine will be approximately 25 hectares
- approximately 146 hectares of land will be cleared
- The mine will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and an expected operating mine life of between 8 and 10 years.
- Approximately 24 Mt (mega tonnes) of waste rock will be mined over the life of the mine and permanently disposed within a waste rock stockpile adjacent to and upstream of the open pit. The final waste rock pile will be revegetated on mine closure.
- One site of cultural heritage sensitivity has been identified within the vicinity of the mine access road.
- Eastern Iron has decided not to use a wet separation process to separate the iron ore. Instead, Dry Low Intensity Magnetic Separation (“Dry LIMS”) will be used. This means that water use will be limited to dust suppression and is estimated at approximately 164 ML per annum.
- The proponent says that there will be no down-stream impacts on creeks and catchments, including Lake Tyers
- Trucks will be used to transport the ore to an existing bulk loader on the southern side of Two Fold Bay at the Port of Eden in NSW, almost 250 km away. The scale of the operation will mean that there would be around 74 vehicle return trips per day of large B Double trucks on a winding road used widely by local and tourist traffic.
- When the mine is finished, the open pit will be allowed to flood via groundwater and surface water inflows.