Koolan Island

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Koolan Island is an island off the north-west coast of Western Australia in the Buccaneer Archipelago. It is about 1,900 km north of Perth, and about 130 km north of Derby. It holds deposits of high grade iron ore.

1 BHP Era
2 Mine reopening
3 Aircraft crash
4 Footnotes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] BHP Era

BHP commenced open-pit mining operations on Koolan and and neighbouring Cockatoo Island in the late 1940s and by 1963 had established substantial mining operations there. The Koolan Island mine closed in 1994 after BHP had extracted 68 million tonnes of high-grade haematite ore averaging 67% iron.

At its peak, Koolan Island had a population of 950 people and had a school, police station, recreation facilities and shops. It had the world's then-longest golf course hole — an 860 yards par 7 number 6 which doubled as the island's air strip.

Major rehabilitaion of the island was undertaken since the mine closure, with buildings and exotic vegeration removed. Extensive replanting of native species has been undertaken.

[edit] Mine reopening

In June 2006, exploration company Aztec Resources, which holds exploration and mining licenses over the island and some of the adjoining mainland, announced the reopening of the mine which it claims as holding some of the richest and purest iron in the world, containing between 67% and 69% iron, with low contaminants in the form of silica, phosphorus, aluminium and sulfur. A forecast of 2 million tonnes of ore per annum is predicted to be mined once the operation goes on-line.

Earlier, in April 2006, the company signed a co-existence agreement with the Dambimangari (Dambima-Ngardi) indigenous Australian traditional owners of the island.^[1] The agreement aims to ensure that 30% of the 220 person workforce is filled by indigenous people by the eighth year of operation.

A third island nearby, Irvine Island is also being considered for mining operations.

On 18 August 2006, Aztec announced that it had signed orders with the Chinese group CITIC for 1.5 million tonnes or ore from 2007.^[2]

[edit] Aircraft crash

In 1984, a single engine Cessna 210 aircraft which had just taken off from the island en-route to Derby, struck power lines and somersaulted. 6 people were killed.

[edit] Footnotes

^ Aztec Resources media release
^ Iron ore supplier Aztec strikes deal with China. ABC News Online.

[edit] References

A Job well done : the Koolan Island achievement. Perth, W.A. BHP Minerals, 1992. ISBN 0-86769-024-0
Biological inventory of Koolan Island, Western Australia. Part 1. Flora and vegetation. in Records of the Western Australian Museum, Vol. 17, no. 3 (1995), p. 237-248
Koolan Island - cave discovered containing (Pleistocene) Aboriginal archaeological material Iron ore chronicle, Vol. 234 (March 1989), p. 6.