PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Mt Cattlin joint venture (JV) mine, in Western Australia, has restarted spodumene production, General Mining and Galaxy Resources announced on Friday.

General Mining has a A$25-million option to earn a 50% stake in the mine, which was expected to produce its first concentrate in July or August.

Production has started at the mining and processing operations, with an initial five-week programme expected to sequentially recover and stockpile spodumene and tantalum concentrates from the fines circuit, ahead of the commissioning of the crusher and heavy mineral sand circuit later in the June quarter.

General Mining said that given the quantities of ore already mined and available for processing, the immediate focus was on the processing circuit, including the progressive commissioning of the primary and secondary feed preparation circuits, thickener, fine and coarse circuit screens, mica removal screens, tantalum spirals and tables, fines reflux classifiers and filter belt.

The recovery of previously blasted ore in the Dowling pit had also started, and the ore would be stockpiled for processing later in the June quarter.

Fines recovery for later processing was also scheduled to start in the quarter, and initial plant feed would be sourced from the existing crushed fine ore stockpiled adjacent to the plant.

The JV was targeting a throughput rate of 800 000 t/y by the end of June.

General Mining and Galaxy Resources stated on Friday that they were finalising formal documentation with China-based buyers for the spodumene output from Mt Cattlin.

Mt Cattlin was placed on care and maintenance in July 2012, owing to high inventory levels of spodumene at Galaxy’s Jiangsu lithium carbonate plant, in China, which it used to supply.

“The restart of production at Mt Cattlin represents another major achievement by General Mining in not only meeting its obligations to Galaxy Resources, but also in becoming a reliable, independent and growing supplier of spodumene concentrate to the global lithium market,” said General Mining executive chairperson Michael Fotios.

“The project team has delivered against a very tight commissioning timeline in order to take advantage of market demand, and I am confident in our ability to continue to meet our ramp-up schedule over the coming months.”

Based on the current mineral resource and ore reserve estimates at Mt Cattlin, the project could deliver 11 500 t/y of spodumene over an initial 17-year mine life.