Cairn Hill mine is an

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

mine formerly operated by IMX Resources and now by

Cu-River Mining Cu-River Mining Pty. Ltd. is a privately owned Australian resources company with interests in iron ore mining and port development projects in South Australia. It is the smaller of two iron ore exporters operating in the state, the larger being ...

. It is located 55 km south-east of

Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. A blower truck ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and produced 1.8Mtpa of a unique coarse-grained magnetite-copper DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) product. The product was mined and crushed on site before being trucked and railed to

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

, where it was then shipped to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Cairn Hill was a joint venture between IMX Resources (51%) and Sichuan Taifeng (49%).IMX Resources website
Accessed 13 September 201a. The Cairn Hill Mining Operation was commissioned in May 2010 and commenced production in December 2010. From Cairn Hill, ore was trucked 58 km to the Rankin Dam rail siding on the Adelaide–Darwin railway, where it was loaded into specially designed open-top containers on a train for the 879 km journey to Port Adelaide. Next, the ore was stockpiled in containers, then loaded directly onto the ship through a rotating containerised ore loading facility. Cairn Hill supplied enough ore for two full shipments of 75,000 tonnes (a single

Panamax Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...

class vessel per shipment) per month. Cairn Hill ore was sold to China where its relatively high copper value and the soft, coarse grained quality of the ore made it highly desirable to a range of customers. In July 2013, the Cairn Hill Mining Operation reached a milestone of 4,000,000 tonnes of iron ore exported.Yahoo Financ
"IMX Resources Limited: Cairn Hill Ships Four Millionth Tonne of Ore"
(2013-07-25) Accessed 24 November 2013. In November 2013, IMX investigated ways to extend the life of the mine by at least 12 to 15 months, before shifting focus to the Mount Woods Magnetite Project."IMX on expansion trail at Cairn Hill"
''The Advertiser'', 14 November 2013. Accessed 26 November 2013. Due to low iron ore prices, the Cairn Hill mine was closed in June 2014.Cairn Hill iron ore miner IMX Resources to close South Australian office, focus on Tanzanian exploration
''The Advertiser'', 3 September 2014. Accessed 4 September 2014. The mine was sold to

in December 2014 and subsequently re-opened. It extracted one million tonnes of ore in the first twelve months.

References

{{reflist category:Mines in South Australia category:Iron ore mines in Australia category:Far North (South Australia)