GWA with some new business from a mine to the Darwin Port.  I am sure they will be happy with that.

Mount Peake, which is around 235 kilometres north of Alice Springs, will become a producer of vanadium, titanium and iron when it is developed. TNG plans to leverage Genesee & Wyoming’s majority-owned Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line to transport magnetite concentrate to the proposed Tivan processing facility in Darwin.

At the processing facility, high-purity vanadium pentoxide, titanium pigment and iron ore fines will be produced.

I am assuming there will need to be a new siding built at the new plant in Darwin.

Would any upgrades be required at Tarcoola?

TNG inks rail deal for Mount Peake project

Further again we have a long term 20 year life on a mine and it has been chosen not to build a spur line to the main for what are quite high volumes?

160 million tonnes over 20 years is around 8m tonnes per annum on 48 weeks of haulage is 167,000 tonnes per week is 40 or so trains loaded per week heading north.  

Waiting for someone to tell me a siding and branch does not cost in.

I am confused! quote: "Mount Peake, which is around 235 kilometres north of Alice Springs" and "The concentrate will be loaded at the Adnera rail siding at Tarcoola, around 85 kilometres from Mount Peake" isn't Tarcoola about 1000 km south of Alice springs?

I found the same and was working through Google Maps to try and locate this morning.

This link: https://www.railexpress.com.au/gwa-to-haul-concentrate-from-nt-mine/ says "loading will be at a at a proposed rail siding at Adnera, on the Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line around 85 kilometres from the Mount Peake site"

I am confused! quote: "Mount Peake, which is around 235 kilometres north of Alice Springs" and "The concentrate will be loaded at the Adnera rail siding at Tarcoola, around 85 kilometres from Mount Peake" isn't Tarcoola about 1000 km south of Alice springs?

Tarcoola to Alice Springs is around 831 km.
Edit: About 30 km less than Marree to Alice via Oodnadatta.

Rail Express have fessed up and edited the story in regard to the mention of Tarcoola. I'm still not sure where Adnera is though.

I think the new mine loading siding is going to be built south of Illoquara loop, which is about 200 km north of Alice.

Further again we have a long term 20 year life on a mine and it has been chosen not to build a spur line to the main for what are quite high volumes?

160 million tonnes over 20 years is around 8m tonnes per annum on 48 weeks of haulage is 167,000 tonnes per week is 40 or so trains loaded per week heading north.  

Waiting for someone to tell me a siding and branch does not cost in.

So, first of all, the 160Mt is an Operations figure, not a Product figure. Also, that is including waste, so, once you discard the waste I would say that is around 118Mt over 17 Years of Expected Operations going off of the concentration figures that I have read. Which will bring it down to just under 7Mtpa, but more likely 6Mtpa. So, I suspect that they will produce ~0.2Mtpa of Titanium, ~0.6Mtpa of Magnetite. So, a couple to a few handfuls of TEUs per week for the Titanium (maybe around a train a week) and maybe Two Trains per week for the Magnetite, once they get to full operations.

So, there isn't any point in laying a Spur to the Mine Site as it just doesn't add up, this coming from someone who's Brother was responsible for the Geo Operations at Prominent Hill and who has knowledge on the Peculiar Knob Operations. The Prominent Hill Operation is dealing with similar Cu figures to the Ti expected to be coming out of TNG.

Prominent Hill has a ~120km Haul Road from their Mine Site to the Rail Head and the Peculiar Knob Haul Road was a ~90km to the Rail Head. So, an ~85km Haul Road isn't unusual. And there are longer Haul Roads in Australia.

Thanks Jack for the insightful response.  I like the numbers and thanks for assisting with those but I disagree with the spur.  I am not sure what it is with australia but we don;t seem to get it.

Haul road = two modes of transport, extra leasing and operating costs, more fuel, not so good for the environment.  Does not add up with 85 km spur would be no more than $85m (I would argue it could be $50m) on a massive 16 year high tonnage project would already have been constructed in many other areas like, Russia, south america, USA etc.

There would also be inbound rail opportunities for fuel etc.

Thanks Jack for the insightful response.  I like the numbers and thanks for assisting with those but I disagree with the spur.  I am not sure what it is with australia but we don;t seem to get it.

Haul road = two modes of transport, extra leasing and operating costs, more fuel, not so good for the environment.  Does not add up with 85 km spur would be no more than $85m (I would argue it could be $50m) on a massive 16 year high tonnage project would already have been constructed in many other areas like, Russia, south america, USA etc.

There would also be inbound rail opportunities for fuel etc.

The mining company will have to build the haul road as even if public roads exist they would need to be rebuilt to handle the high frequency heavy traffic.

How much will an 85km new build haul road cost?

Bevans you forgot to add the many drivers required and the changes in transport mode which is inefficient compared to a wagon loading setup a branch line would
Provide.

Lita of extra costs without a branch line.

Bevans you forgot to add the many drivers required and the changes in transport mode which is inefficient compared to a wagon loading setup a branch line would
Provide.

Lita of extra costs without a branch line.

TNG Ltd, the owner of Mount Peake, have obtained a MOU from the Export Finance Australia for finance of up to $300m to develop the mine with a life of 37 years.

tng limited begins process federal debt backing mount peake project

See https://smallcaps.com.au/tng-limited-begins-process-federal-debt-backing-mount-peake-project

Thanks Jack for the insightful response.  I like the numbers and thanks for assisting with those but I disagree with the spur.  I am not sure what it is with australia but we don;t seem to get it.

Haul road = two modes of transport, extra leasing and operating costs, more fuel, not so good for the environment.  Does not add up with 85 km spur would be no more than $85m (I would argue it could be $50m) on a massive 16 year high tonnage project would already have been constructed in many other areas like, Russia, south america, USA etc.

There would also be inbound rail opportunities for fuel etc.

The mining company will have to build the haul road as even if public roads exist they would need to be rebuilt to handle the high frequency heavy traffic.

How much will an 85km new build haul road cost?

Which out that way will probably be a mostly closed dirt road not for public use hauled by very long road trains.

Rail is unlikely to be used for general freight to the mine, spur line or not rather a rail head with other shared facilities and then trucked from there, including fuel.

If the mine is not commiting to a spur line then they have done the cost / risk analysis and it doesn't stack up. More capital, risk of early mine closure vs building a dirt track in open flat space with minimal rainfall risk with no risk of public incursion.