Project
Infrastructure and Services
Roads
The mine is located approximately 80km south-east of Mt Magnet. The Great Northern Highway runs from Perth to Mt Magnet and access to the site is via the Mt Magnet to Sandstone road. The Sandstone road is a sealed, all weather road up to the Youanmi turnoff. The section of the Youanmi road from the Sandstone road to the mining lease is approximately 21kms long and is in good condition.Unpaved public roads are regularly graded by the local Shire and are constructed to a sufficient standard to operate efficiently for the traffic demands placed upon them.
The mine access road is all weather and has been sheeted with bitumen from the village area to the administration area located at the plant.
Gas Supply
Energy for the project is derived from natural gas and will be supplied from the gas fields in the north west of Western Australia via the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline ("DBNGP") and then to the Mid West Gas Pipeline ("MWGPL") at the Eradu Road outlet point, just south of Compressor Station 7.The Company has a three year contract with Santos for the purchase and delivery of natural gas to the Windimurra mine. The supply agreement includes an option to extend for a further three years, subject to agreement being reached on price, providing long-term security for the project.
The Company also has 15 year gas transportation contracts in place for both the DBNGP and the MWGPL.
Gas will be a key fuel component for the Windimurra vanadium mine, and its use is unique in the vanadium industry. The gas will be used to fire the existing rotary kiln and fuel for the power station.
Roasting the ore concentrate with natural gas has previously been shown at Windimurra to yield a higher purity vanadium product than is produced by competitors who use pulverised coal.
Approximately 50% of the project’s total gas demand is consumed in the process plant with the remaining gas being consumed in power generation.
Power Station
The Windimurra project will purchase electricity “over the fence” from a power station based on site, to be built, owned and operated by experienced power contractor, Zenith Pacific.The power station will incorporate three Solar Taurus gas turbines and four Jenbacher gas reciprocating engine generating sets. The gas turbines can handle large loads from furnaces or large drives being switched on intermittently without tripping power to the whole site. The reciprocating engines by contrast are more fuel efficient. This combination of engines, combined with Zenith’s expertise will ensure power availability is enhanced and significant down time from the power station tripping out regularly is eliminated. Once commissioned, the power station will be capable of producing up to 18.5MW of electricity while the average demand is 14MW.
Water
Water demand for the operation will be 3.25 Gigalitres per annum i.e. 8,900 cubic metres per day on average.The water will be derived from an existing borefield located between ten and twenty kilometres to the east, north and west of the mine.