WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE September–November 2004 $3 (inc GST) Nickel Kambalda reborn Discoveries: The search takes off Kwinana’s golden anniversary DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY AND RESOURCES Investment Services 168 St Georges Terrace PERTH Western Australia 6000 Postal address: Box 7606 • Cloisters Square Perth Western Australia 6850 FROM THE MINISTER Tel: +61 8 9327 5555 • Fax: +61 8 9222 3862 Email: [email protected] www.doir.wa.gov.au New hi-tech airborne geological survey INTERNATIONAL OFFICES Europe European Offi ce • 5th fl oor, Australia Centre he Western Australian Government’s However, while Corner of Strand and Melbourne Place A$12million hi-tech airborne our resources sector LONDON WC2B 4LG • UNITED KINGDOM geological survey program will is vital to our State’s Tel: +44 20 7240 2881 • Fax: +44 20 7240 6637 T Email: [email protected] potentially unlock billions of dollars in economy, nothing is Clive Brown, MLA Minister for State India — Mumbai natural resources and create new jobs more important than Development Western Australian Trade Offi ce and opportunities for current and future ensuring workers return 93 Jolly Maker Chambers No 2 9th fl oor, Nariman Point • MUMBAI 400 021 INDIA generations of Western Australians. home safely. Tel: +91 22 5630 3979/74/78 • Fax: +91 22 5630 3977 The new four-year program is designed Western Australia’s resources sector has Email: [email protected] to double the area of the State covered by a strong and enviable record in protecting India — Chennai Western Australian Trade Offi ce - Advisory Offi ce base-line airborne geophysical data that the health and safety of its workers and the 1 Doshi Regency • 876 Poonamallee High Road provides an image of the rocks beneath number one priority of the industry is to Kilpauk • Chennai 600 084 • INDIA soil and sand cover. This new information improve this record. Tel: +91 44 2640 0407 • Fax: +91 44 2643 0064 E-mail: [email protected] will encourage additional exploration and There remains a need to constantly Indonesia — Jakarta ensure the State continues to benefi t from focus on ways of ensuring workplaces Western Australia Trade Offi ce strong international demand for resources, are free from serious accidents, and JI H R Rasuna Said Kav C15 - 16, Kuningan Jakarta 12940 • INDONESIA particularly from China. ensure we can develop safely, strongly, Tel: +62 21 2550 5331 • Fax: +62 21 522 7103 The Western Australian Government and sustainably. E-mail: [email protected] has also been working hard to secure The Department of Industry and Indonesia — Surabaya opportunities for regional areas from strong Resources is currently preparing a Bill to Western Australian Trade Offi ce Graha Pena 17th fl oor • Jalan Ahmad Yani 88 international demand for the State’s amend the Mines Safety and Inspection Act Surabaya 60234 INDONESIA natural resources. 1994 (MSI Act), with proposed changes Tel: +62 31 829 9979 • Fax: +62 31 829 9975 Email: [email protected] We’ve recently announced A$3.9million in aligning the MSI Act with the Occupational Japan — Tokyo extra funding to further assist the approvals Safety and Health Legislation that applies to Australian Business Centre (WA Govt Offi ce) process for new projects, and are facilitating all other workplaces. 28th fl oor, New Otani Garden Court 4-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-Ku • TOKYO 102-0094 JAPAN the expansion of the ports of Geraldton, The Mines Occupational Safety Tel: +81 3 5214 0791 • Fax: +81 3 5214 0796 Esperance, Albany, Bunbury and Dampier to and Health Advisory Board also Email: [email protected] meet surging demand for exports. continues to ensure industry, unions Japan — Kobe This is therefore a great time for and regulators work together to provide Western Australian Government Offi ce 6th fl oor, Golden Sun Building • 3-6 Nakayamate-dori international investors to come to Western key stakeholders with advice and 4-Chome Chuo-Ku • KOBE 650-0004 JAPAN Australia and benefi t from a once-in-a- recommendations on occupational Tel: +81 78 242 7705 • Fax: +81 78 242 7707 Email: [email protected] generation window of rapid economic safety and health across Western Australia’s Malaysia growth and social development. mining industry. Western Australian Trade Offi ce 4th fl oor, UBN Tower • 10 Jalan P Ramlee KUALA LUMPUR 50250 MALAYSIA Tel: +60 3 2031 8175/6 • Fax: +60 3 2031 8177 Email: [email protected] Middle East Western Australian Trade Offi ce • Emarat Atrium FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL PO Box 58007 • Dubai • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Tel: +971 4 343 3226 • Fax: +971 4 343 3238 E-mail: [email protected] Western Australia set to soar People’s Republic of China — Shanghai Western Australian Trade & Investment Promotion Shanghai Representative Offi ce • Room 2208, CITIC Square his edition of Prospect addresses in detail an important resource 1168 Nanjing Road West • Shanghai 200041 area of Western Australia which late last decade was written off as PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA being a casualty of low nickel prices and high production costs. Tel: +86 21 5292 5899 • Fax: +86 21 5292 5889 T The Kambalda nickel belt has now been reignited, with a host of junior Email: [email protected] Jim Limerick People’s Republic of China — Hangzhou miners acquiring and successfully redeveloping mines. Signifi cantly, Director General exploration success at those mines by those companies has led to greatly Department of Industry Western Australian Trade & Investment Promotion and Resources Hangzhou Representative Offi ce increased project lives. Room 910 • World Trade Offi ce Plaza Zhejiang World Trade Centre Hundreds of jobs have been created through Kambalda’s rebirth. The new owners are 15 Shuguang Road • Hangzhou 310007 using more selective and profi table mining methods than those employed by the former PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA owner, WMC Resources, which now buys ore on a toll basis for treatment at its concentrator Tel: +86 571 8795 0296 • Fax: +86 571 8795 0295 E-mail: [email protected] in Kambalda, its smelter in Kalgoorlie and its refi nery in Kwinana. It is a win-win situation for South Korea all concerned. Mr Young Chan Yu, Regional Director Kambalda is part of the broader nickel scene’s revival with the State now producing Western Australian Trade & Investment Offi ce around 20 per cent of world output. 11th Floor, Kyobo Building 1 Jongro 1-Ga, Jongro-Gu A new oil province is also emerging as a candidate for development with BHP Billiton Tel: +82 2 722 1217 • Fax: +82 2 722 1218 recently announcing the Stybarrow prospect, off the Exmouth Peninsula, was likely to be E-mail: [email protected] confi rmed as a medium–sized oil accumulation. The prospect is adjacent to Woodside’s Taiwan 100 000 barrel a day Enfi eld development. WA Business Development Manager Australian Commerce & Industry Offi ce Elsewhere, Prospect pays tribute to the State’s biggest industrial area, the Kwinana strip, Suite 2606, International Trade Building which celebrates its golden jubilee this year. Fifty years of development, which began with #333 Keelung Road Section 1 • TAIPEI 110 TAIWAN the BP oil refi nery that is still going strong, has produced a thriving region which each year Tel: +886 2 8780 9118 ext 216 • Fax: +886 2 2757 6707 Email: nicholas.mckay@austrade,gov.au sees resources valued at billions of dollars being processed and exported from Western Thailand Australia. WA Business Development Manager Australian Trade Commission • Australian Embassy 37 South Sathorn Road • BANGKOK 10120 • THAILAND Tel: +662 287 2680 Ext 3307 • Fax: +662 287 2589 E-mail: [email protected] in this issue 8 Kambalda comes alive The strong nickel price and new ownership structure of the Kambalda nickel field has seen the glory days return. This bullish outlook is fuelled by healthy economic growth and dwindling global stockpiles. 2 Search takes off 14 Industrial powerhouse thrives Deep exploration is a new buzzword in Western The Kwinana industrial strip has turned 50 and Australia with new techniques searching for future development and expansion plans for the State’s Golden Miles and Telfers. premier heavy industry area are set to enhance the prevailing level of prosperity. 5 Oil under the waters A new oil province seems likely to be developed after 22 Working at the cold face drilling success off Exmouth confirming the State’s Cryogenics is coming to Western Australia through position at the centre of the Australian industry. the manufacture of transport and storage vessels in a move which could see the State on the threshold of an 6 Gold glitters at Norseman important new industry. The operations may be 70 years old, but exploration has proved the biggest gold resource position in 26 Petroleum area releases the history of Central Norseman. Six new petroleum exploration areas have been released to promote the prospectivity of vast sedimentary basins. 36 Resource Map Front cover: Prospect WMC Resources Ltd’s John Adam Western Australian Prospect magazine is published quarterly by the Western Australian Government’s Department of at the Kwinana nickel refinery. Industry and Resources (DoIR) and Ray Burns Media. Editorial management: Mark Dixon, DoIR Communications & Marketing Division. Tel: (08) 9327 5555 • Fax: (08) 9327 5500. Advertising management: Ray Burns Media, PO Box 1230, South Perth Westerm Australia 6951 Tel: (08) 9227 6688 • Mobile: 0408 474 328 • Email: [email protected] Prospect has been compiled in good faith by the Department of Industry and Resources from information and data gathered in the course of the magazine’s production. Opinions expressed in Prospect are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Industry and Resources.