Prior to mining, we clear vegetation and topsoil from our mine paths and stockpile these resources for use during rehabilitation.

A floating dredge located at the front of an artificial pond uses a submerged rotating cutter to loosen the dunes and extract the minerals. Sand is pumped through pipelines to a floating concentrator at a rate of approximately 3,000 tonnes per hour. In 2003, Dry Mining Units (DMUs) were introduced to optimise mineral production.

Dredge and Concentrator

In the concentrator, a gravity separation process using a series of water fed spirals extracts the heavy mineral sands comprising rutile, zircon and ilmenite. As the ilmenite contains iron, we then separate it from the rutile and zircon using WHIMS (Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separators).

The sand, from which the minerals have been extracted, is pumped behind the dredge pond and stacked to be reshaped into dunes.

Every week CRL transports, on average, five 1,800-tonne loads of mineral concentrates by barge from North Stradbroke Island to the dry mill located at Pinkenba, near the mouth of the Brisbane River, for final separation.

Operational Flow Chart

Processing Flow Chart

Further Processing
Concentrates transported to the dry mill are passed through spirals and over wet separation tables and then kiln-dried before electrostatically separating the rutile and zircon. High-powered magnets then separate any remaining ilmenite from the rutile.

Our products are supplied packaged, in bulk or into 20 tonne containers for export. A bulk shipment varies from 3,000 to 39,000 tonnes and is loaded at a rate of 1,400 tonnes per hour.

Packaged mineral is one of CRL’s fastest growing business segments, with our close proximity to the major Asian markets a competitive advantage.