Environment and Sustainability

South American Iron & Steel and all of its subsidiaries are committed to operating in a responsible manner which minimises our impact on the environment and ensures ‘best practice’ rehabilitation wherever possible.

Mining by its very nature disturbs the land however national development relies on a variety of minerals, metals and their extraction from the ground.

 Our objective is to:

• Return landform back to pre-mining levels wherever possible or to a practical alternative landform agreed with land owners or government.
• Protect native fauna and flora species as much as possible.
• Work hand in hand with local communities.

The mining of heavy mineral deposits is one of the least invasive and sustainable types of mining carried out anywhere today and Australia is the global leader in this type of mining technique.

Because of the location and geological formation of iron sands deposits they allow themselves to be mined in a very similar way to conventional heavy mineral sands operations. Heavy mineral sands deposits have been mined sustainably in Australia, South Africa and parts of the USA since the 1950’s.

Mining has occurred in populated and usually vegetated areas and in almost all cases a balance has been reached between the benefits of mining development, conservation and urban development. All of these mining operations have been carried out on the frontal dunes and paleo dune areas of major beaches, including the Gold Coast and Byron Bay regions of Australia and also the west coast of New Zealand. All of these mining areas have contained native vegetation, wetlands, swamp, primary dunes and paleo high dune areas.

Mining is generally carried out using dredges and floating processing plants and only a small area is affected or disturbed at any given time. Sometimes dry mining techniques are used which require bulldozers. Land is progressively rehabilitated behind the mining operation and in its simplest form it is a moving hole or void where small areas of grass or trees are cleared ahead of the operation, the sand mined, barren sand placed back into the trailing edge of the void and trees planted immediately behind the mining void.

Some important features of this type of mining are:

• Only a small area of land is affected at any one time.
• 90-95% of the material mined is returned back into  the mining area once the heavy mineral component is removed.
• No chemicals used in the mining or  mineral extraction process.
• Post mining areas are as stable as pre-mining areas.
• Within the constraints of government regulations mined areas can be contoured to suit land owner or government needs.

The basic mining and restoration process is:

• Seeds from native plants and trees are collected and used in a nursery to propagate about 50,000-100,000 plants yearly  ready for the rehabilitation process.
• Bulldozers push down the vegetation and stockpile it on the side of the mining operation – this is done to preserve any native seeds etc and provides shelter for wildlife.
• Scrapers remove the topsoil and store it on the sides of the operation – sometimes a layer of subsoil is also removed if it is nutrient rich. Topsoil is also sometimes moved immediately to the back of the mine as this improves the preservation of soil microbes.
• The area is mined and the tailings sand is placed back into the mining hole behind the mining equipment.
• Bulldozers then contour the sand tailings area within a few months of mining.
• Topsoil is then put back over the tailings area using scrapers. A cover crop usually consisting of a grain is first planted to stabilise the soil and then seedlings are planted.

Heavy mineral mining operation east coast of Australia - During Mining (Left) and Post Mining (Right)