WA'S environment watchdog has approved Sinosteel's plan to develop two open mine pits at its $2 billion Weld Range project in the Mid-West. The Environmental Protection Authority said today it had given conditional approval to Sinosteel Midwest Corp's plan for the open pits C which have a mine life of 11 years - and associated infrastructure. The open pits are within the Chinese company's Weld Range iron ore project, which Sinosteel "parked" in June last year on the back of substantial delays to the Oakajee port-and-rail project, of which it was to be the foundation customer.
Sinosteel had previously said that delays to Oakajee were costing the company about $100 million a year. The company had planned to export 15 million tonnes of ore each year from Weld Range. Today, EPA chairman Paul Vogel said Sinosteel's new open pits were located on the environmentally sensitive Banded Iron Formation ranges in the Mid-West.
"While there were no declared rare flora or threatened ecological communities in the project area, more than 3500 hectares of native vegetation, including part of a priority ecological community, will be cleared and so the conditions the EPA have recommended would ensure impacts to vegetation communities are limited," he said. Dr Vogel said conditions included carrying out targeted surveys for priority species and ensuring the number and type of weeds did not increase. Sinosteel will also need to monitor and manage native vegetation, fauna habitat and feral goat populations to improve vegetation condition.
The proposed mine pits are also 100km west of the proposed Square Kilometre Array project. The EPA said it expected Sinosteel to consult with the CSIRO during the development phase. Comment was being sought from Sinosteel at time of publishing. The EPA proposal is up for public comment for the next two weeks.