Chandler Project Release Notice of Intent

• Tellus lodges Notice of Intent for its Chandler Salt Mine project
• Tellus appoints local Northern Territory environmental impact assessment team
• Main project components:
  • underground salt mine and plant near Titjikala (120km south of Alice Springs)
    • complementary storage and renewable energy business
  • speciality salt packing plant with training school and visitor centre in Alice Springs
  • supply chain infrastructure – in Darwin’s East Arm Port

Australia’s first underground rock salt mine is one step closer, with Tellus Holdings lodging a Notice of Intent with the Northern Territory Government in the next few days.

The Notice of Intent starts the environmental approvals process with the Northern Territory and Australian Governments and will include extensive community and stakeholder consultation.

Tellus Holdings has appointed the Darwin office of Coffey Environments to coordinate the environmental approvals process for the proposed salt mine and Low Ecological Services in Alice Springs to do baseline ecological studies.

Tellus announced in March that it hopes to develop a rock salt mine on one of several exploration licences it holds near Titjikala, on Maryvale Station about 120 kilometres south of Alice Springs. The deposit is also believed to contain valuable minerals such as magnesium and potash, which are used in fertilisers.

Should the project go ahead, it would produce high quality rock salt, or halite, which would be processed on site, trucked to the nearby railway line and mostly exported to Asia, where edible and industrial salts are in demand for products such as chloralkali, soda ash and water treatment.

Tellus also hopes to establish a speciality salt processing facility in Alice Springs with a training and visitor centre which would provide opportunities for a number of microbusinesses and increase the number of jobs generated by the project.

Once the salt is mined, the voids left behind will be used to store products such as archives, equipment and waste. This could include drilling muds from the oil and gas industry, salt fluxes from the mining industry wastes and local wastes like asbestos.

Mr van der Merwe stressed that the mine would not take nuclear, uranium mining or biological waste or any materials that are not safely containerised or sampled.

Another element of the project is a proposed staged hybrid diesel solar energy plant that will be used to power the mine and potentially nearby communities.

The project is expected to generate about 270 construction jobs and 350 direct and indirect operational, with Tellus committing to employ and train as many local people as possible as well as looking for ways to grow local businesses to work with the mine.

Since the project was announced in March, Tellus Holdings has completed a successful first stage capital raising and prefeasibility study.

The Department of Mines and Energy has approved a Mine Management Plan Exploration Operations. Tellus has signed an exploration agreement with traditional owners, through the Central Land Council, which is about to conduct sacred site clearances with traditional owners so environmental surveys and seismic drilling work can start on the proposed mine site and access and haulage roads.

Work on a Definitive Feasibility Study will start in earnest early next year to look at all aspects of the project, such the best mining method, logistics, costs and technical aspects of the project. “This will let Tellus make a decision about whether we apply to the Government to proceed to mining,” Mr van der Merwe said.

Once a Notice of Intent has been lodged with the Northern Territory Government:

• the proposal is circulated within Government the Minister determines the level of assessment (expected to be an Environmental Impact Statement)
• draft guidelines are advertised for public comment, then finalised
• the company does all the studies required for an Environmental Impact Assessment, including a community consultation report and social impact assessment
• the EIS is advertised for public comments, with comments addressed by the company in a supplementary report
• the Government decides whether to approve the EIS.

This process is expected to take 12 to 18 months, Mr van der Merwe said.

Tellus Holdings Ltd (“Tellus”) is an Australian-owned mining company adding value to underground rock salt. Tellus is the parent of a group of companies involved in the mining, processing and sale of industrial and edible salts, fertilisers and minerals. Potential complementary businesses include storage in voids created by mining.

Visit: www.tellusholdings.com.au or contact:
Duncan van der Merwe, Managing Director Tel: +61 (0)2 9241-7678
Jane Munday, Michels Warren Munday on +61 0427 880 083