The submission of the proposal to the South Australian Department of State Development for review follows 18 months of studies into a proposed operation at the Eyre Peninsula site.

The proposal covers both mining and manufacturing operations at the Campoona, and includes plans for a processing facility to be built at the nearby Sugarloaf project.

It outlines mining of up to 140,000 tonnes per annum of graphite over an initial life of almost 14 years, with 10,000tpa of lithium-ion battery suitable graphite concentrate above 98.5% purity to be produced by the Sugarloaf facility.

Mining would take place by conventional open cut methods and conducted in campaigns during autumn and spring. The proposal outlines a day shift-only roster running from Monday to Saturday.

A total of 1.65 million tonnes of graphite would be mined over the life of the mine.

Archer has committed to sourcing workers for the mine locally where commercially practical, and anticipates up to 42 new full and part-time mining and processing positions would become available should the mine go ahead.

An indirect flow-on workforce comprising around 135 jobs is also expected to be created.

Archer said the preparation of a program of environmental protection and rehabilitation would occur in parallel to the mine lease proposal process.

The proposal comes just two days after the company executed a sale and purchase agreement between the owners of the land required for a mining operation at Campoona Shaft.

The land required for the processing facility at Sugarloaf is already owned by Archer.

Shares in Archer were up 4.5% to 11.5c today.