• Resources Mined in WA
  • Petroleum
  • Iron Ore
  • Nickel
  • Alumina
  • Gold
  • Mineral Sands
  • Coal
  • Diamonds
  • Copper, Lead and Zinc
  • Salt
  • Tin/Tantalum/Lithium
  • Manganese

Tin/Tantalum/Lithium

• Western Australia has tantalum mines at Greenbushes and Wodgina, with Sons of Gwalia (SOG)the major tantalum producer in the state.  These mines hold approximately 75 per cent of the world's tantalum reserves, and SOG also accounts for 60 per cent of the global supply of lithium minerals.
• Today, both Greenbushes and Wodgina are open cut operations. Initially, mining in the weathered zone was relatively easy with front-end-loaders digging out the soft mineralised rock as well as waste rock and loading into dump trucks for transfer to the mill for crushing and processing.
• Due to its high resistance to corrosion and fatigue, tin's major use is for tin-plating (coating low-carbon steel with a thin coating of tin), used for food packaging. The coating also improves the metal's workability and ease of soldering.
• The special electrical properties of tantalum make it useful for reliable electronic capacitors, such as in mobile phones, accounting for 50% of its use worldwide.

To download the Tin/Tantalum fact sheet click here.

Maps
Major Mineral and Petroleum Projects in Western Australia (530.84 KB .pdf)

Plant & Machinery Operations