Paroo Station Study

Paroo Station Mine, located in the East Murchison Goldfield of Western Australia, is an open cut  cerussite (lead carbonate) mine and concentrating facility. The Mine and Concentrator were constructed  and commissioned in 2004 and 2005. During operations, lead concentrate was transported by road and  rail to the Port of Fremantle in sealed shipping containers, where it was shipped to overseas markets.  The operation is currently on “care and maintenance” and includes an open pit mine, concentrator plant,  accommodation village, power station and associated infrastructure. 

The mine was placed into care and  maintenance in 2015 following environmental management issues associated with the transportation of  concentrate from mine to port. Ore was processed on-site through conventional crushing, milling and  flotation to produce a lead carbonate (cerussite) concentrate. Due to the issues associated with the  shipping of the concentrate, RHM desires to study the expansion of the existing facility to include  smelting of the concentrate to produce lead ingots that substantially reduces Pb exposure risks during  transportation. 

In 2020, RHM engaged Canadian Engineering Associates (CAEng) to study  pyrometallurgical process options at the conceptual level. 

NewPro was engaged in late 2020 to confirm  the CAPEX estimates and the conceptual study conclusions that selected the Short Rotary Furnaces  (SRF) Process as the most feasible option. The intention wasthat the feasibility of this technology will be  studied to a higher level of engineering detail (20-35%) to produce a Class 3 FEL 2 level study.