Australian lithium producer Pilbara Minerals confirmed on Monday that its first shipment of spodumene concentrate from the Pilgangoora project would leave Port Hedland this month and said that its first shipment of tantalite concentrate had been delivered to Global Advanced Metals (GAM).

MD and CEO Ken Brinsden has described September as a “milestone month” for the company, citing the first deliveries of spodumene and tantalite to long-term offtake partners.

About 40 t of tantalite concentrate has been delivered under a mine gate offtake agreement to GAM and about 5 000 t of spodumene concentrate was ready for shiploading to the company’s customer group.

Pilbara said that its spodumene concentrate had been tested at one of its key offtake partners, General Lithium’s research laboratory and readily produced battery-grade lithium carbonate.  

Meanwhile, the miner reported strong production throughput for Pilgangoora’s Stage 1 coarse and fines circuits and said combined tonnages were averaging about 500 t/d.

The spodumene concentrate recovery at the Pilgangoora concentrator is achieved through dense media separation of the ore to a coarse concentrate, followed by fines flotation to recover the remaining spodumene. Both circuits are load commissioned and contributing to the production of saleable product.

Plant run-rates have continued to increase and have been achieving design capacity input tonnes over a 24-hour period, through the combined coarse and fines concentrate production circuits.

Product specifications for both fines and coarse spodumene concentrates have been further refined with improving overall stability in the processing plant operations.

“We have some fantastic talent at Pilbara Minerals and with the production results and product quality we are achieving, it is clearly on display. From the significant orebody knowledge underwriting the ore reserve in the ground, to mining, blending and now plant performance we have always been focused on quality outcomes.

“The strong results now being achieved also reflect the significant investments we made, including our decision to invest upfront in both a coarse and fines processing circuit, as well as in high-quality equipment selection. Together, this will help ensure that the Pilgangoora project becomes one of the lowest cost producers globally in the long term,” Brinsden said. 

Meanwhile, Pilbara also announced a 35% increase in the ore reserve estimate for Pilgangoora. The expanded reserve includes 108.2-million tonnes, grading 1.25% lithium oxide and has been estimated from a 226-million-tonne resource.