A part of Badja Station, a 113,600ha site 280km east of Geraldton in the shire of Yalgoo, has been put forward by the company as a candidate to store intermediate and low level radioactive waste created through medical and scientific procedures in Australia.

The voluntary nomination is part of a nationwide process to find a suitable site for the safe disposal of radioactive waste run by the Department of Industry and Science under the Radioactive Waste Management Act.

Under the terms of the act, Gindalbie would be compensated for the use of the site.

Badja Station will now be subject to a technical, economic, social and environmental assessment along with other nominated sites as the first of four phases in the nomination process.

Gindalbie said a program of preliminary engagement and consultations with local community representatives and stakeholders had been undertaken prior to the submission, and that extensive public consultations would continue at every stage of the project.

The move follows a troubled period for Gindalbie, which owns a 47% stake in the Karara iron ore project, 200km east of Geraldton, under joint venture Karara Mining with Chinese steel producer Ansteel.

Karara cut 70 jobs, or around 15% of its workforce in March due to tough market conditions, and said at the time that the project was not cash flow positive.

The cuts came weeks after the company became the first in the state to receive a magnetite mining royalty rebate issued by the WA government to ease the pressure of the iron ore price slump.

Gindalbie had a cash reserve of $A2 million at the end of the March quarter, and said in its quarterly report that it was undergoing a review of its exploration tenements with the intention of divesting those of little prospectivity.

Shares in the company were steady yesterday at 2.3c.