PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Box cut excavation has started at Core Lithium’s BP33 underground project, at the company’s Finniss lithium operations, in the Northern Territory.
The company is spending between A$45-million and A$50-million on early works and an updated feasibility study at BP33, with the aim of making a final investment decision (FID) on the project by the first quarter of next year.
The box cut will provide portal access from which the decline to the BP33 orebody will be developed as a part of the next phase of capital works.
“It is pleasing to see the progress of the parallel early works and feasibility study workstreams at BP33. We are aiming to make an FID for BP33 in the first quarter of 2024 and are completing these early works so we can be ready to commence decline development promptly,” said Core MD and CEO Gareth Manderson.
“We have also now commenced discussions with a number of underground mining contractors who have expressed interest in the BP33 project.
“And we are undertaking a systematic exploration programme targeting a number of deposits near the Finniss processing facilities. We are pushing ahead with drilling and updated studies at Carlton as we begin to define the optimal mine sequencing at Finniss.”
An updated feasibility study on the Carlton project, which is 2 km from the Finniss processing plant, will be completed by the end of 2024.