PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Reserves at the Bald Hill lithium/tantalum project, in Western Australia, have more than doubled following pit design changes that resulted from an increased resource estimate.
ASX-listed Tawana Resources and its joint venture partner Alliance Minerals on Wednesday reported that total lithium resources at Bald Hill now stood at 26.5-million tonnes, at 1% lithium oxide, while lithium reserves were estimated at 11.3-million tonnes, at 1% lithium oxide and 160 parts per million (ppm) tantalum pentoxide.
The reserve estimate was a 105% increase on the previous reserve estimate.
Bald Hill’s tantalum ore reserves also increased by 43%, to two-million tonnes, at 313 ppm tantalum pentoxide.
“The increased reserves along with the potential for additional reserves resulting from infill drilling of inferred material, provide strong support for significantly increasing processing throughput rates,” said Tawana MD Mark Calderwood.
“We are actively reviewing the options to best increase throughput in the existing plant and/or add an additional dense media separation circuit and fines circuit. There has been strong interest from a number of parties to obtain concentrate supply from Bald Hill.”
Bald Hill shipped its first spodumene concentrate in May this year, following the successful commissioning and continued ramp-up of the project, which started production in March.
The A$42.2-million Bald Hill project is expected to deliver 155 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate and 260 000 lb/y of tantalum pentoxide over a mine life of 3.6 years.