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Soils of the Waroona Minesite

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Soils of the Waroona Minesite SOILS OF THE PROPOSED WAROONA MINESITE DESKTOP STUDY Prepared for: Iluka Resources Limited ABN 34 008 675 018 PO Box 96, Capel, WA 6271 Prepared by: Soil Water Consultants ABN 45 096 843 659 PO Box 153, Applecross, WA 6153 Tel: 0427 105 200; Fax: (08) 9364 1625 Email: [email protected] 26th July, 2004 PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance Document Status Record Project Title: Desktop Study of the Soils in the Proposed Waroona Minesite Project Number: PN0046-1-IR-035 Client: Iluka Resources Limited Date Commenced: 01/06/04 Revision Date Signatures Comments code revised Originator Checked Approved 0 26/07/04 Submitted report to Lisa Sadler ASP AJH ASP Soil Water Consultants i PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance Limitations Statement The purpose of this report and the associated services performed by Soil Water Consultants (SWC) is to conduct a desktop study of the soils in the proposed Waroona Minesite. This work was conducted in accordance with the Scope of Work submitted to Iluka Resources (‘the Client’). SWC performed the services in a manner consistent with the normal level of care and expertise exercised by members of the earth sciences profession. Subject to the Scope of Work, the desktop soil study was confined to the proposed Waroona Minesite area. In preparing this study, SWC has relied on published soil reports from various soil researchers and information provided by the Client. All information is presumed accurate and SWC has not attempted to verify the accuracy or completeness of such information. While normal assessments of data reliability have been made, SWC assumes no responsibility or liability for errors in this information. All conclusions and recommendations are the professional opinions of SWC personnel. SWC is not engaged in reporting for the purpose of advertising, sales, promoting or endorsement of any client interests. No warranties, expressed or implied, are made with respect to the data reported or to the findings, observations and conclusions expressed in this report. All data, findings, observations and conclusions are based solely upon site conditions at the time of the investigation and information provided by the Client. This report has been prepared on behalf of and for the exclusive use of the Client, its representatives and advisors. SWC accepts no liability or responsibility for the use of this report by any third party. Soil Water Consultants ii PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance Project Summary Iluka Resources Limited (Iluka) proposes to mine the mineralised beach deposits at the Waroona Minesite. This report represents a desktop study of the soils likely to be encountered during mining of the deposit, and provides an overview of the characteristics of these soils. This information will be used to assist mine and environmental planning and initial development of rehabilitation strategies. The Waroona Minesite consists of three principal minepits covering a total area of 70ha. The North and South Minepits occur at a surface elevation of 60 – 90m and will access the Ridge Hill Shelf beach deposit. The Main Minepit occurs to the west of the North and South Minepits, surface elevation 38 – 70m, and will access the more recent Waroona beach deposit. Assessment of previous soil surveys conducted in the vicinity of the Waroona Minesite, indicate that the Lotons and Gwindinup soil types dominate the area. Both soil types originally formed by colluvial processes transporting sand, sandy clay and gravel material from the adjacent Darling Scarp. Considerable pedogenesis has occurred since deposition, redistributing the sandy, silt and clay throughout the profile. Pedogenesis is facilitated by the elevated topographic position of these soils, ensuring permanent oxidising conditions in the surface soils. The Lotons soil type consists of moderate-deep yellow-brown surface sand that gradually alters to a gravelly sandy loam at depth. The surface sands overlie a yellow-brown and yellow-red mottled sandy clay subsoil, and large lateritic boulders commonly occur at the duplex boundary. In contrast, the Gwindinup soil type has an absence of gravel and consists of deep to very deep yellow-brown sand. Mapping of the exploration drilling data (i.e. sand and silt+clay contents) reveals that the soils in the Waroona Minesite exhibit considerable spatial (lateral and vertical) heterogeneity. Deep regions of sand, identified by this mapping, may represent areas of local and regional groundwater recharge. Investigation is required to quantify the role of these regions to the hydrogeology, so that rehabilitation strategies can be developed to restore their functioning, post-mining, if identified to be important. Soil Water Consultants iii PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance Table of Contents Document Status Record……………………………………………………. i Limitations Statement…………………………………………………….… ii Project Summary……………………………………………………….…. iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………..… iv 1.0 Introduction……………………………………………..…………. 1 1.1 Objectives of Work…………………………………………………. 1 1.2 Scope of Work…………………………………………………….… 1 2.0 Site Location and Description of the Waroona Minesite……..… 2 2.1 Location of the Proposed Waroona Minesite……………………….. 2 2.2 Description of the Waroona Minesite………………………………. 3 3.0 Previous Soil Surveys of the Waroona Minesite…………………. 6 4.0 Distribution of Soils in the Waroona Minesite…………………… 15 References………………………………………………………………….. 20 Soil Water Consultants iv PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance 1.0 Introduction Iluka Resources Limited (Iluka) engaged Soil Water Consultants (SWC) to conduct a desktop study of the soils in the proposed Waroona Minesite. The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the soils within the minesite to assist in mine and environmental planning and initial development of rehabilitation strategies. This study provides a ‘first pass’ assessment of the soils within the Waroona Minesite, which will be investigated in more detail when the Soil Management Study is conducted. 1.1 Objectives of Work The objectives of the work were to: • Review published soil studies that have been conducted in the vicinity of the proposed minesite; • Describe the soils likely to be found in the proposed minesite; • Prepared an initial soils map of the area; • Map the vertical distribution of soils through the overburden, using exploration drilling data; • Report on the spatial complexity of soils within the minesite; 1.2 Scope of Work The scope of work to be completed by Soil Water Consultants included: • Obtain and review existing soil studies covering the area of the proposed minesite; • Summarise the information contained in these studies and prepare an initial soils map of the area; • Obtain the exploration drilling data for the minesite, and map the distribution of the overburden soils; • Preparation of this report. Soil Water Consultants 1 PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance 2.0 Site Location and Description of the Waroona Minesite 2.1 Location of the Proposed Waroona Minesite The proposed Waroona Minesite is located within the Shire of Waroona, approximately 100 km south-east of Perth and 4km north of the Waroona townsite (Figure 2.1). It is situated on the eastern side of the South Western Highway, between Peel and Wealand Roads (Figure 2.2). Figure 2.1: Regional location of the proposed Waroona Minesite Soil Water Consultants 2 PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance Figure 2.2: Local location of the proposed Waroona Minesite. 2.2 Description of the Waroona Minesite The proposed Waroona Minesite consists of three principal orebodies: North Pit, South Pit and the Main Pit (Figure 2.2). The characteristics of these pits are shown in Table 2.1. Mining within the North and South Minepits will to extract the mineralised beach deposits along the Ridge Hill Dune System (Baxter, 1977, Wilde and Low, 1980). This shoreline and associated dunal sediments were deposited during the Early to Mid Pliocene (5.3 – 2.0 Mya) when sea levels fluctuated between 60 – 90 m above present sea level (APSL) (Figure 2.3). The mineralised beach sands were deposited as a continuous unit along the developing Ridge Hill Shelf System (Wilde and Low, 1980), overlying the highly eroded, westerly sloping surfaces of the Leederville Formation and weathered Archaean granitic rocks (Baxter, 1977). Since deposition, marine regression and the establishment of highly incised drainage channels, have Soil Water Consultants 3 PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev. 0 Knowledge Commitment S C Performance dissected the Ridge Hill Shelf deposits, resulting in remnant mineralised beach sand deposits occurring as isolated orebodies along lateritised spurs at the foot of the Darling Scarp (McArthur, 1991). Mining within the Main Pit at the Waroona Minesite will extract the mineralised beach deposits along the Waroona Shoreline (Baxter, 1977). This shoreline represents a westerly extension of the Ridge Hill Shelf deposit, having been formed as sea levels regressed to the west. Deposition of the mineralised sands occurred between 50 – 70 m APSL, and overlies the westerly sloping surface of the Leederville Formation. Since deposition of the Ridge Hill and Waroona mineralised deposits an average of 6m of overburden material has been deposited over the mineralised orebodies. This overburden material consists primarily of colluvial sand to clay that has been eroded from the adjacent Darling Scarp at an average annual rate of 0.005 mm/year. This very low Pleistocene sedimentary rate is equivalent to the regional depositional rate for the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) as suggested by Playford et al. (1976). Table 2.1: General characteristics of the three orebodies at the proposed Waroona Minesite. Corresponding Surface Depth of Orebody shoreline of elevation Area (m2) {ha} overburden (m) Baxter (1977) (RL, mAHD) (Average depth) North Pit Ridge Hill Shelf 60 – 90 119,581 {11.96} 0 – 16 (7) South Pit Ridge Hill Shelf 60 – 95 149,491 {14.95} 0 – 16 (5) Main Pit Waroona 38 – 70 432,311 {43.32} 0 – 14 (5) Soil Water Consultants 4 PN0046-1-IR-035, Rev.
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