Sorby Hills project to generate 500 jobs
A planned lead, zinc and silver mine near Kununurra could create up to 500 jobs during the project's construction phase.
KBL Mining's Sorby Hills project was given the final tick of State Government approval in April when Environment Minister Albert Jacob signed off on the project after 2 1/2 years of negotiations.
Construction of the $80 million project is hoped to start in the middle of this year, with the first load of concentrate expected to be shipped from Wyndham Port in mid-2016.
KBL Mining executive director Brian Wesson said concentrates were mostly purchased by Chinese smelters, which refined the metals, using the lead in batteries, zinc for protecting steel and preventing bacteria, and silver for jewellery, coins, and electrical contacts in switchgear.
A 5000m drilling program will be carried out at the end of the wet season with the hope of increasing the mine's life from a six-year reserve to more than 10 years.
Mr Wesson said the project would be "operated by 80 to 100 people that will dig the open-cut mine and operate and maintain the process plant", while "during construction there will up to 500 staff on site".
Major construction components include a crushing station and grinding section to reduce the size of rocks, a floating plant to remove lead and silver from fine mud and a tailings dam.
Mr Wesson said mud placed in the tailings dam would not contain harmful chemicals but was "essentially a heap of mud that is dewatered".
The modest capital expenditure venture had originally planned to mine up to 80,000 tonnes of lead and 2.8 million ounces of silver per year from the shallow ore body, with an estimated annual value of more than $200 million.
However, Mr Wesson said in the early years there would be "negligible zinc" and the company would instead focus on shipping 25,000 tonnes of lead in 50,000 tonnes of concentrate and 770,000 ounces of silver each year.
The mine site and processing facility will be built 50km north-east of Kununurra near the Northern Territory border, with concentrate to then be trucked in sealed containers to Wyndham Port for shipping.
KBL is backed by China's biggest silver and lead smelter, Henan Yuguang Gold and Lead, and also has interests at the Mineral Hill Mine in New South Wales and Constance Range in Queensland.
