The pending appointment is an important step in the development of the project and will see Contract Power build a 32 mega-watt hybrid gas and renewable energy solution to power the Coburn project.

Strandline and Contract Power will complete final contract documentation as per their lenders’ wishes to finalise the 15-year building, owning, operating and maintaining model.

The power station’s maximum demand capacity will be 16 mega-watts and its average consumed power will be 10 mega-watts, with natural gas to be supplied under a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreement.

According to Strandline, the power station will be a low-cost and low-emission solution, fuelled by natural gas, solar and battery storage technology, as outlined in its Coburn definitive feasibility study.

“The appointment marks another key step in Strandline’s strategy to bring Coburn into production and establishes an important relationship with Contract Power, a leader in sustainable clean energy generation in Western Australia,” Strandline managing director Luke Graham said.

The Coburn power station will be based near the mineral separation plant with LNG to be trucked to an on-site storage and re-vapourisation facility supplied by Contract Power.

The works represent one of the major development package conditions of Strandline’s models to finalise funding for the project.

Coburn has a large ore reserve of 523 million tonnes at 1.11 per cent total heavy minerals, comprising zircon, titanium dioxide, garnet, sillimanite, kyanite and staurolite.

Strandline’s updated definitive feasibility study released in June confirmed an initial mine life of 22.5 years at the proposed mining rate of 23.4 million tonnes per annum of ore.