Northern Iron has exported its first Warrego magnetite shipment

A revived Tennant Creek mine has sent its first shipment to Darwin Port. Read what it was.

Northern Iron first magnetite shipment

Northern Iron has dispatched its inaugural shipment of magnetite from its Warrego rehabilitation Project near Tennant Creek to Asian markets.

Northern Iron’s project involves the recovery of magnetite - a form of iron ore - from the reprocessing of tailings at the historic Warrego mine site about 50km northwest of the town.

The project has an expected mine life of three years and is forecast to produce up to 1.2m wet tonnes of magnetite concentrate annually and currently employs about 35 people.

Magnetite is a highly magnetic and dense mineral, allowing it to be effectively separated from other tailings material in the processing plant using a combination of water and magnetism to form a magnetite concentrate.

Northern Iron’s first magnetite shipment en route to Port Darwin.

There was 47,100 tonnes of magnetite concentrate on board the first shipment with processing at Warrego underway since October last year.

According to Northern Iron’s website the Warrego Rehabilitation Project uses “an innovative rehabilitation process” to produce a high-grade magnetite concentrate from a low-grade iron ore stockpile.

“During the site’s previous operation magnetite was never targeted as a commercially viable product due to a lack of processing technology and market demand,” the website said. “Magnetite from the site was only partially processed before being left in storage as a low-grade iron ore stockpile. With advancements in technology, Northern Iron has developed a method of reclaiming and processing the historic low-grade iron ore stockpile into a commercially viable and sustainable high-grade product known as Northern Australia Magnetite Concentrate.”

Northern Iron estimates that a potential $100m a year will be generated for the local economy.