PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Boonanarring mineral sands project, in Western Australia, has produced its first heavy mineral concentrate, ASX-listed Image Resources reported.
The company said on Monday that the wet commissioning at Boonanarring started in October, and continues to advance on schedule and within budget.
“Production of first heavy mineral concentrate product is perhaps the most memorable achievement of every mineral sands project. While the challenge of ramping up the ore processing rate to nameplate capacity and achievement of steady state operations is still in front of us, the achievement of completion of construction and first heavy mineral concentrate production on schedule provides confidence that the remaining development hurdles will be cleared,” said Image MD Patrick Mutz.
First revenue from Bonnanarring is expected in January next year, with the project expected to achieve positive cash flow by the end of the first quarter of 2019.
The Boonanarring deposit is expected to deliver 1.1-million tonnes of HMC and the Atlas deposit an additional 711 000 t. The Boonanarring deposit is estimated to have an initial mine life of five years, after which mining will move to the Atlas deposit, which will add a further three years to the overall mine life.