Reef approval delays bauxite project a year

　　FIRST bauxite from Rio Tinto's $1.4 billion South of Embley project near Weipa has been delayed by a year after federal Environment Minister Tony Burke sent the approvals process back to square one because of concerns over shipping through the Great Barrier Reef.

　　Rio will release its environmental impact statement today, eight months after Mr Burke surprised the miner by expanding the terms of reference of the study to include the impact of shipping on the reef.

　　Rio says it will target starting construction next year, with first bauxite shipments in 2016, back from a previous target of 2015.

　　The South of Embley project will produce up to 50 million tonnes of bauxite a year from an area 40km south of Weipa, most of which will be exported to Asia. But some bauxite will be shipped around Cape York Peninsula and down the Queensland coast to Gladstone, which sparked concerns by the Wilderness Society and prompted Mr Burke's demand for increased studies.

　　In the EIS, Rio says that when South of Embley is operating at full capacity, it will account for an extra 60 ship movements each year through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

　　This would account for 0.4 per cent of the 14,455 movements expected in the park in 2020.

　　"The project does not substantially change the number of ships traversing the reef and the EIS shows that potential impacts on the environment can be managed," Rio Tinto Alcan chief executive, bauxite and alumina, Pat Fiore said. "We have been mining bauxite on the Cape and shipping it safely through dedicated shipping lanes to Gladstone for almost half a century."

　　In May, the Queensland government approved what had been a joint federal-state approvals process, until Mr Burke added extra conditions.

　　The extra bauxite that will be shipped to Gladstone will help feed a $2.5bn expansion of the Yarwun alumina refinery there that was completed this year.

　　South of Embley will require about 950 workers for construction, while operating workforce numbers will range from 550 to 1350 depending on production.

　　At first, output from South of Embley will probably be about 22.5 million tonnes a year.

　　The volumes will not all be extra for Rio. The project is designed to take up the slack as reserves at the current Weipa operations are depleted.