PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Image Resources has inked a second heavy minerals concentrate (HMC) offtake agreement over production from its Boonanarring mineral sands project, in Western Australia.
Image told shareholders that along with the original HMC offtake agreement with Shantou Natfort Zirconiumand Titanium Company, the new offtake agreement with Wensheng High-Tech Materials will cover 100% of the HMC production from Boonanarring.
The new agreement with Wensheng required modifications to the original Natford agreement, which was for 100% of the HMC production from Boonanarring over the life of the mine. However, Natford and Image have agreed to allow 50% of the HMC production to be sold to Wensheng under the second, reciprocal HMC offtake agreement.
Both offtake agreements require the offtake party to purchase 100% of the HMC production in the event that the other is unable to take delivery of any or all of its allotted 50% of HMC production.
Image told shareholders that the overall effect of the new and modified offtake agreement is that the company now had even greater certainty of the sale of its HMC production, with the commitment of two parties able and willing to purchase its product.
Construction at Boonanarring started in April this year, and first production is scheduled for the fourth quarter.
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.