Miner doubles projection for Irwin siteArticle from:

THE company hoping to mine bauxite on part of a Cape York reserve dedicated to the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin has doubled its projection of the size of the mineral deposit at the site.

Miner Cape Alumina today announced testing on drilling conducted on its Pisolite Hills project, which overlaps the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, had revealed the bauxite deposit was twice as large as previously thought.

It is now believed the site contains more than 100 million tonnes of bauxite, up from the previous projection of 50 million tonnes.

The company hopes to mine more than seven million tonnes from the site a year.

Cape Alumina chief executive Dr Paul Messenger said the reported mineral resource provided increased confidence of the scale of the deposit and its export quality.

"We see the potential for an initial 10- to 15-year operation at Pisolite Hills and this new resource statement will form a key component of our preliminary feasibility study which we expect to complete in July," he said.

The company is currently locked in a courtroom battle with the Irwin family-owned Australia Zoo over access to the reserve to conduct an environmental impact statement for the mine.

Australia Zoo secured the pastoral lease 135,000-hectare Bertiehaugh Station last year as a tribute to Steve Irwin, who died in September 2006 after being struck in the chest by a stingray barb off the coast of Cairns.

However, about 15 per cent of the property is also covered by a mining lease owned by Cape Alumina.

Steve's widow Terri Irwin says the property is home to vulnerable plant and animal species and has vowed to fight the proposed mine.

A decision on the Land