NRW strengthens Coburn involvement with $135m contract

The contract includes engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and performance testing of the wet concentration and mineral separation plants.

NRW subsidiary Primero will work with Downer Group subsidiary Mineral Technologies to deliver the solution.

The companies are aiming to commence the works to achieve first ore within around 18 months.

NRW plans to complete the work by late 2022, with around 180 site personnel on site and construction peaking through that year.

Strandline managing director Luke Graham said the appointment marked another key step in its strategy to bring Coburn into production and formalises an important relationship with leading service providers in Primero and Mineral Technologies.

NRW chief executive Jules Pemberton added that the EPC contract award demonstrated the diversity of the Primero minerals business.

“Our minerals, energy and technology (METS) division is growing strongly with the addition of Primero into the group and is looking forward to further success in a strong market for services,” he said.

The relocatable wet concentration plant is designed to beneficiate heavy minerals and reject the non-valuable minerals, producing rich heavy mineral concentrate.

This will be transported to the mineral separation plant and stockpiled for further processing.

The plant is capable of recovering chloride ilmenite, rutile, premium zircon and zircon concentrate.

Strandline awarded an early involvement contract to NRW in the third quarter of last year before it was converted to front end engineering design to further optimise the project.

The latest contract win follows Strandline’s success in securing the required funding last month.