East Gippsland contractors have delivered a major milestone at the Fingerboards Mining and Rehabilitation Demonstration Pit (MRDP), successfully completing the first stage of pit excavation works.
Over ten weeks, local contractors led by the Gippsland Critical Minerals (GCM) team worked more than 3,270 hours and moved approximately 48,000 cubic metres of material to complete the pit excavation program.
The next phase of work has now commenced, with ore processing through the separation plant underway to produce a heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) using gravity and water.
Reaching its final planned dimensions, the pit is approximately 170 metres long, 55 metres wide and up to 22 metres deep. No workplace safety incidents and no environmental incidents have been recorded.
GCM Project Director Technical, Stefan Wolmarans, said the milestone reflected the quality and capability of the teams involved.
“This phase of work brought together a range of technical specialists including mining engineers, rehabilitation and environmental specialists, agronomists, metallurgical consultants and experienced local suppliers and contractors,” Mr Wolmarans said.
“The quality of work delivered by local businesses including Riley Earthmoving, Whelans Group Investments and our other local suppliers have been exceptional. They have completed highly precise excavation works, while ensuring the highest levels of safety and environmental compliance.”
“Together, they have delivered a clean, controlled and well-managed site that is doing exactly what it was designed to do.”
“Anyone who visits the Demonstration Pit can see the standard of work that has gone into it. It’s a credit to the people involved and the depth of capability supporting the project.”
More than 15 East Gippsland businesses have shared in over $1.4 million of local contracts, providing an early glimpse of the economic opportunities the project could deliver if approved.
While Riley Earthmoving delivered the pit excavation works and Whelans led construction of the separation plant, this milestone reflects the contribution of local suppliers and contractors across earthmoving, engineering, fabrication, piping, transport, environmental monitoring and site support.
The MRDP is a requirement of GCM’s Retention License requiring it to conduct large scale rehabilitation trials. It was also a recommendation made by the IAC and an ask of many in the community in public submissions as part of the previous EES process.
The trial is overseen by GCM staff with decades of experience across mining, rehabilitation and environmental management, alongside specialist advisors including Grounded Resource Advisory.
Environmental performance is being monitored through a range of measures, including real-time dust and noise monitoring, a water sampling program, groundwater quality and time-lapse cameras.
With excavation now complete, data collection instruments have been installed to collect and test water volume and quality through all stages of the HMC separation and tailings deposition processes.
Ore recovered from the pit is now being processed using water and gravity separation to produce the HMC, which will be stored in sealed shipping containers for further metallurgical test work.
Tailings generated during processing will be placed into a designated cell within the pit before being covered with the remaining overburden, using exactly the same processes as the full-scale project.
The site will then be reshaped to its final landform, with overburden, subsoil and topsoil replaced before seeding and vegetation trails will be established to test various pasture scenarios.
“Only around five per cent of the ore mined at Fingerboards is recovered as HMC,” Stefan said.
“The remaining 95 per cent is primarily sand and silt that is returned to the tailings cell within the pit. Unlike the highly modified and processed tailings often associated with other forms of mining, mineral sands tailings are largely the same material that was originally excavated, only with the valuable minerals removed.”
Rehabilitation and monitoring is expected to continue for years, with eleven pasture and cover crop mixes tested across the site.
The seed mixes will be planted across the trial area to help researchers identify which pasture and cover crop combinations perform best under different rehabilitation conditions.
Community tours of the Demonstration Pit are continuing throughout July, providing local residents with an opportunity to see the site firsthand and speak directly with project staff.
Community members interested in attending can register via www.gippslandcriticalminerals.com/mrdp-guided-tours/.
