Iluka's progress on expanding Murray Basin to meet FY target

July 12, 2010 - Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources Ltd says the second stage of its Murray Basin project straddling Victoria and New South Wales is on track to meet its full year production forecast.
The group's shares rallied for a fifth day on 12 July 2010, peaking at $A5.38 before closing at $A5.31, the highest in almost three years.
General manager eastern and western operations Steve Wickham said a ramp-up of the project was near complete and would deliver a combined rutile-zircon production of 330,000 tonnes per annum, up from 180,000 tonnes per annum from the first stage of the project.
"The additional investment of $200 million in stage two - following our investment of $500 million in stage one - will see Iluka's immediate future tied to mining of the first multiple mine deposits near Ouyen, Mildura and West Balranald," Mr Wickham said.
"This material will feed into our original stage one processing plant at Hamilton, which had serviced output from the Douglas mine to its northwest.
"But our future is increasingly in the multiple sites including Kulwin and then the nearby WRP deposits before moving to mine and truck sands from West Balranald from about 2014."
Mr Wickham said the Murray Basin assets had an economic life to at least 2023.
"The basin is therefore a key component in the transformation of Iluka from our older deposits in Western Australia into the east with a rutile-zircon mix with very favourable supply demand characteristics," he said.