Adelaide based Centrex Metals has announced the site for a proposed iron ore mine on Eyre Peninsula. The Fusion project is about 20 kilometres west of Tumby Bay.

The company said that there might be more than 450 million tonnes of ore. The mine will be 60% owned by the Chinese company Wuhan Iron and Steel.

Mr Ben Hammond, who is working on the project, says environmental and social studies have begun and the mine is likely to give a big boost to regional employment. He said that "I think we'll be up in the range of Onesteel in the scale, you know we'd love to think there's going to be a mine here, unfortunately not every exploration project turns into one, but if it does get up it could really mean a new industry to underpin the southern Eyre Peninsula.”

A local landowner, Mr Milton Stevens, is a member of the Saving Our Sustainability group. He said that the company's announcement is deeply worrying. He added that "Their threat to the water holes, to the water supply, the underground water, the Tod River itself has yet to be addressed.”

"The threat to the ecology is yet to be addressed. I'm well aware that this is some time down the track before they're going to start digging big holes but the fact that they've announced that is directly concerning to all those of us involved. Their long-term destruction to the water tables is irreparable if what our modelling is showing is going to happen does happen."

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)