Price tag in excess of $400m for Grange Resources’ Savage River Mine development

By 2029 Grange Resources hopes to transition to underground mining at its Savage River site. However, it will cost more than $400 million to make that happen.

Grange Resources Savage River Iron Ore Mine within the Tarkine

The owners of an iron ore mine are set to spend more than $400 million to commence underground operations.

Grange Resources has submitted a development application to the Waratah-Wynyard Council to do work on setting up underground operations at the north pit of its Savage River Mine.

While the project is subject to council approval, Grange Resources Chief Operating Officer Ben Maynard said it would increase the scope of what iron ore the company could extract from its mine.

“The work involves developing an underground decline and an extraction level about 200 metres or so below the pit floor,” Mr Maynard said.

“That would allow us to mine out the bottom and break that rock. We’d convey the minerals to the service and then feed them into our pellet plant.

Grange Resources Chief Operating Officer Ben Maynard. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s a transition from open-cut mining to underground mining.”

Mr Maynard said the project would take years to complete.

“It’s something that we’ll develop over the next five years.

“We are hoping to have it approved this year; then we’ll commence the detailed engineering, pre-construction and then construction.

“We’d start production and ramp up from 2027 to 2029. It’s something that will happen over the next five years.”

Mr Maynard said the mine was going well.

“We are currently mining the north pit itself, so we’re doing a cutback on the canopy and that will take us down to the bottom of the pit for the next couple of years.

“And the other part of our operations in another pit and that’s providing for this year and the next.

“We’ve kind of got all that will be delivered from the pits in the next three to five years, and then we’ll transition over that five-year period to be able to deliver ore from underground.”

With its planned underground operations, Mr Maynard said it would set the Savage River Mine “up for a strong future”.

“The investment that’s made in this will reduce our operating cost overall, so it will make us more cost-competitive and be able to ride the lumps and bumps of the market.

“It secures the future and enables us to move along our decarbonisation project timeline.

“We’ve got a number of things that we can do, and as we move, we can significantly reduce emissions if we change our mining method from open-cut to underground.

“There’s a lot of room for positives for this development.”