Silica Resources Australia to open new Mourilyan Sands mine in Far North

An unlikely partnership between sugar and sand has the potential to provide hundreds of jobs in Far North towns desperate for new employment opportunities.

An unlikely partnership between sugar and sand has the potential to provide hundreds of jobs in Far North towns desperate for new employment opportunities.

Silica Resources Australia, a new Australian mining company, has this week started construction on a silica flour mine and processing facility in Mourilyan.

Silicon is on the Australian government’s list of critical minerals and is in high demand across the world as it’s used to make solar panels and technology including phones and computers.

SRA’s product will be processed on site before being sent to partners in the Asia-Pacific and domestically, with exports on track to start by the end of this year.

SRA chief executive and managing director Rob Tindall said having access to the Mourilyan port plus skilled workers within the sugar industry, as well as the region’s rich silica deposits, made Far North Queensland the ideal location to open the mine.

“Mourilyan Port is only utilised about 40 or 50 days of the year … it’s an incredible asset, only 20km from our mine,” he said.

Silica Resources Australia CEO and managing director Rob Tindall. Picture: Emily Barker

“The other thing was the sugar industry, it’s very similar to what we do.

“They harvest the sugar, process it, put it in a truck, take it to the port and put it on a ship – we do exactly the same thing. The crossover in skills is actually quite significant.

“This resource is also incredibly high grade, it’s probably some of the best sand on the planet. very fine grain and very low impurity.”

Mr Tindall said the mine had a minimum 50-year lifespan and was estimated to support 180 full-time jobs over the next decade alone.

“There’s a lot of unemployment in the Innisfail region generally and there’s a lot of skilled labour in the region because of the sugar industry,” he said.

“And the sugar industry is really seasonal, only really goes for six months of the year so a lot of them are looking at this as an opportunity to work twelve months of the year.

“There’s also a lot of fly-in, fly-out (mining) workers that live around the Cassowary Coast.

“Here is an opportunity for those workers to work up the road, be with their family every day.”

The Port of Mourilyan is only 20km from the new Silica Resources Australia mine. Picture: Julie Lightfoot

It comes as the Mossman sugar mill heads towards closure in the region’s north while industrial action threatens operations at Tully Sugar.

Stage one of the Mourilyan Sands project is on about 480 hectares of freehold land which has an existing mining lease.

The next stage, subject to environmental and government approvals, would see SRA expand its operations by partnering with canegrowers on land containing deposits and mining the product alongside sugar crops.

Originally published as Silica Resources Australia to open new Mourilyan Sands mine in Far North