Tellus buys local and hires local at Sandy Ridge

  • Tellus supports local and indigenous business by hiring locally and buying locally
  • Third round drilling to start second week of April 2016
  • Approximately 50 NQ holes to be drilled and six piezometers installed
  • Geotechnical investigations starts on road access, building materials and ground conditions

Tellus Holdings Ltd (Tellus) reports that the final phase of mineral and environmental drilling and first phase of geotechnical investigation on road access, building materials and ground conditions for the Sandy Ridge Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) will start in the second week of April with a number of local firms and experts providing services.

The Sandy Ridge project is 140 km north-west of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (WA).

“Tellus has a policy of creating local business opportunities and hiring and buying locally. Even though field work at Sandy Ridge is relatively modest as we gear up towards the final approvals and build phase, it is great to see so many local firms providing excellent services,” Managing Director of Tellus, Mr Duncan van der Merwe said.

“This should increase as we get closer to production,” he said.

Local firm Wallis Drilling successfully provided previous drilling programs at Sandy Ridge and for this program of work will provide a Mantis 100 rig for drilling and sampling of up to 50 NQ aircore holes. The area to be drilled was identified in previous programs as a potential location for the kaolin mine and complementary storage and isolation services.

The drilling program will provide preliminary mine planning geological data for the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) and the first three to five years of operations.

Six holes will be drilled and equipped as piezometers to confirm the mine area does not have a water table. The rig will also drill a series of shallow holes to install soil moisture and temperature monitoring instruments. The data collected should confirm the calibration of the near-surface hydrogeological model for the site.

Fig. 1: Piezometer drilling 2015

Douglas Partners’ Perth office has been contracted to provide geotechnical works that includes:

  • evaluating the existing pavement quality and borrow pit material suitability along 110 km of existing and new access roads;
  • providing pavement design services for new roads and on-site working surfaces;
  • evaluating infrastructure and village facility ground conditions, fill material quality and compaction design, and building foundation system design parameters;
  • mine pit slope angle validation, material density and waste cell cover building anchor design.
  • Data will be collected using in-field measurements and samples taken from trenches and drill-cores.

Other local and Indigenous business include:

  • the Indigenous company KyRok (onsite civil works and road clearing)
  • Aurora Environmental (soil moisture monitoring equipment)
  • Continental Resource Management (on-site geologists)
  • TerraSearch (logistical support)
  • several specialist firms will provide supplies.

About Tellus Holdings:
Tellus Holdings Ltd is an infrastructure project development company with a proposed dual revenue infrastructure business model. This involves mining the commodities salt and kaolin and backfilling the voids left from mining with equipment, archives or long term storage of waste. Tellus plans to store like-with-like materials, so as to create opportunities for the future long- term, storage, treatment and recovery of valuable materials or the permanent isolation of waste. Tellus’ business model mirrors world’s best practice solutions operating in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada. Tellus is developing the Chandler project in the Northern Territory (NT) and the Sandy Ridge project in Western Australia. Tellus’ flagship ‘Chandler Project’ has been awarded Major Project Status by the Northern Territory Government.

For further information:
Visit: www.tellusholdings.com.au or contact:

Duncan van der Merwe
Managing Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8257 3395

Corporate and Chandler Project:
Jane Munday
Michels Warren Munday (Media)
Mob: +61 (0)427 880 083

Sandy Ridge Project:
Cameron Morse
FTI Consulting (Media)
Tel: +61 (0)8 9485 8888

dorrie krahe
dorrie krahe