The site of a West Coast mine development targeted by environmentalist protesters is far from pristine wilderness, a local identity says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"The oldies can tell you who mined it over 100 years ago," Tullah Progress Association president Jenny Bowie said at Venture Minerals Limited's Riley Iron Ore Mine site.
"It's bringing an old mine into the 21st century in an ecologically sustainable manner."
Environmentalists have vowed to keep up their protests against Riley, which have led to several arrests.
"Protests against Venture Minerals will continue until the company and their investors get the message that they are not welcome in takayna (the Tarkine) and commit to leaving the area," Bob Brown Foundation campaign organiser Lisa Searle said on Monday.
"We have been fighting them for over a decade and we are not going to give up without a fight to defend one of the last wild places on Earth through non-violent protest."
Foundation campaigner Scott Jordan said Venture had "invaded the Tarkine, wilfully destroying an area that is precious to many who want this wild place protected".
Ms Bowie said the site was by no means pristine wilderness and nor was it an old-growth forest area, pointing to obvious evidence of widespread bushfires.
She said Tullah locals had backed Venture's plan since day one.
Site manager and geologist Travis Holmes said the area had been mined for osmiridium in the past and old workings could still be found.
Osmiridium mining boomed in Tasmania a century ago, with uses including the nibs of fountain pens.
Mr Holmes said the Riley iron ore grades had been enhanced by many fires in the area over millions of years.
The mining plan at Riley involves a "panel" method, where areas in turn would be cleared, mined and rehabilitated.
Venture aims to send its first iron ore shipment, via the Burnie Port, during the June quarter.
It has two other potential mining projects in the area.
They are the big Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten project and another iron ore project called Livingstone.
Mt Lindsay - which Venture says was also mined a century ago - is the big ticket item for both the company and environmentalists, given its scale and potentially much longer mining lifespan.
Venture managing director Andrew Radonjic said the plan was to mine Riley for two years and possibly Livingstone for a year as a satellite operation to Riley, bringing in cash to help the start-up at Mount Lindsay.
That was envisaged as having mining life of seven to eight years.
"Once Riley starts, the idea is to organically grow the business and reinvest the money into the Tasmanian assets," he said.
In a presentation for investors dated March 18, Perth-headquartered Venture described Mount Lindsay as an "advanced " project and said it gave the company near-term exposure to the electric vehicle metal and critical minerals markets.
It said demand in those markets meant it was time to reassess Mount Lindsay (which, like Riley, has been in planning stages for years).
It said Mount Lindsay was one of the world's biggest undeveloped tin projects and had more than 80,000 tonnes of tin metal, plus a globally significant tungsten resource.
The tin price was up by about 95 per cent since early 2016 and the tungsten price by about 60 per cent.
"Tin is an important part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution through solder, which is the glue that connects everything that is electronic," it said.
"Tin is technically diverse and hence is also an important part of the Green Industrial Revolution as the world converts to an electricity-based economy."
It said tungsten was ranked as a critical mineral by the the British Geological Survey, the US Department of Defense, the European Commission, Japan, Russia and Australia because of its economic importance, China's market dominance and related supply risk and its inability to be substituted.
Venture said it was "time to explore new strategies to optimise higher grade portions at Mount Lindsay".
Dry screening of surface ore at Riley started last year, but proved to be inefficient and was abandoned.
Venture said construction of a wet screening plant to process the Riley material was "well advanced".
Commissioning is expected in late April.
Venture said the Riley project economics were much stronger than feasibility study numbers from 2019, which were based on a price of $US90 per tonne of material containing 62 per cent iron content, compared with about $US160 per tonne recently.
Mr Radonjic said the company was "fairly confident" it could "work around" delays caused by the protests.
"We need the support of government and the police force to give us clear access, but we're confident we can work it out" he said.
He said the mine was fully permitted, the company had gone through due process and the area had been logged previously.
He said the company was only permitted have have up to 3 hectares of cleared land unrehabilitated at one time.
"There's a lot of controls that are in place to allow us to do what we do," he said.
"We understand where we are."
Riley employment is expected to peak at about 100 full-time equivalents, including 60 truck drivers.
Mount Lindsay is thought to have potential to employ 220 people.