CSR to go ahead with Julia Creek

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 23

CSR to go ahead with Julia Creek

PA - Sydney CSR. Ltd. is seeking partners for the next stage of the Julia Creek oil shale project in Queensland and is prepared to spend up to S3OOM on a pilot plant which would produce up to 5000 barrels of oil a day, the directors announced. They said in the quarterly report that evaluation of the results of the preliminary feasibility study confirmed that further work is warranted. A CSR spokesman said that the company will now look for joint venture partners with experience in large scale projects and the ability to contribute to oil processing and refining technology. The announcement comes less than a month after the Rundle Oil shale partners reported major problems with that project. Esso Australia, Ltd, and the partners. Central Pacific Minerals, NL. and Southern Pacific Petroleum, NL, have disagreed on cost estimates and a review of the feasibility of the Rundle project is underway. CSR's feasibility study of the Julia Creek project was completed last year and shows the scheme to be viable some time in the late 1980 s if real oil prices con-

tinue to rise by atleast 3 per cent per year' from now. the spokesman said. CSR wants to select a process technolog}' and then design and construct a pilot plant consisting of a small mine, one oil shale retort, and an upgrading plant. The Julia Creek deposit is estimated to contain some four billion barrels of oil. CSR also said that drilling at its molybdenum/tungsten prospect near Mudgee. New South Wales, continued to intersect molybdenite. Previously unreported assays range from 0.09 per cent to the cut off grade of 0.05 per cent.