PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Altura Mining has delivered its first lithium concentrate from its flagship project in Western Australia.
The first concentrate production comes 16 months after ground was broken at the Pilgangoora project, in March 2017.
Following the start of crushing operations in May this year, Altura has been working through the final commissioning stages to progress to first delivery of lithium concentrate.
“We have always worked to a stringent and aggressive timetable with this project. As with any development, there are obstacles which occur; however, the entire team worked tirelessly to be in the position we are in today, where we are in sight of delivering our first shipment of concentrate,” said Altura MD James Brown.
Offtake partner Lionenergy is expected to receive its first shipment of lithium concentrate next month, with the offtake partner also indicating that it would like to receive as much as possible of the 100 000 t/y minimum supply allocation under the binding offtake agreement, as production at Pilgangoora ramps up in the second half of 2018.
“Our focus is to ramp up production to full capacity over the coming six months and then we can turn our attention to the expansion project.”
At full capacity, the Pilgangoora processing plant will produce 220 000 t/y of 6% lithium concentrate.
A definitive feasibility study in April found that a Stage 2 duplication project could expand the processing plant to produce 440 000 t/y of lithium concentrate, as early as 2020.
The Stage 2 development is expected to require a capital investment of A$118-million, and will result in the Pilgangoora project’s net present value reaching A$834.6-million with an internal rate of return of 62.6%.