Renewed interest in Monto mine

THERE is hope Monto's dying economy could be kick started with the potential staggering resurrection of the closed Goondicum mine.

The feldspar, apatite and ilmenite mine near Monto closed in September 2008 taking 40 jobs, when former owners Monto Minerals went into administration.

Biloela mining mogul Ian McCauley and business partner John Rawlins forked out around $15 million for the assets of Monto Minerals in December 2008 but it took until May 2009 to finalise agreements with SunWater about the water pipeline to the mine.

Since then Mr McCauley's company Belridge Enterprises has struggled with making the project financially viable along with issues with insufficient road and rail infrastructure.

Mr McCauley's son Mark McCauley, a director at Belridge Enterprises, said a spike in ilmenite prices over the past six months has given hope the mine may be resurrected.

He said the company was dusting off previous feasibility studies and had been approached by overseas firms interested in financing a redevelopment of the mine.

Mr McCauley said any new mine would focus solely on ilmenite.

"We're quietly confident that we will be able to get it going again," Mr McCauley said.

"There is a lot of work to do."

One issue the company will have to deal with is a clause in the Mineral Resources Act that state or local governments are paid if a mine moves than 50,000 tons annually to lessen the road impacts.

The Goondicum project, when mining all three resources of feldspar, apatite and ilmenite, would had done that, making it unlikely to go ahead given rail infrastructure cannot handle it without a major upgrade.

Mr McCauley said they would ensure production remained below that level.

He said he expected if the project got the go ahead it would provide around the same 40 jobs.

Mr McCauley said they hope make a decision in the next month.

Monto Minerals went into administration after a mid 2008 review identified a number of significant flaws in the design of the project's feed preparation area; the primary cause for the project's poor operating performance.