Name of the Project
Kathleen Valley lithium/tantalum project.
Location
The project is located in Western Australia’s north-eastern goldfields.
Client
Liontown Resources.
Project Description
A scoping study has demonstrated the potential of the Kathleen Valley project to support a viable standalone lithium mining and processing operation.
The scoping study outlines a base case two-million-tonne-a-year development with the potential to produce about 360 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate over an initial eight- to nine-year mine life.
The project has a life-of-mine production target of 15.7-million tonnes of ore.
The Kathleen Valley Project process plant consists of a mineral processing concentrator with associated services and ancillaries. It includes:
• three-stage crushing;
• two-stage dense-medium separation (DMS) to produce a primary concentrate, a coarse tail and a middling product for further treatment;
• ball milling of the middling product;
• three-stage flotation to produce a fine;
• concentrate and fine tails;
• rod milling and gravity/magnetic separation to produce a tantalum concentrate;
• thickening and filtration of the concentrate;
• coarse and tails disposal; and
• reagents and services.
The coarse tail from the DMS plant will be loaded onto trucks and placed in the waste stockpile area. The fine tail from the flotation plant will be thickened and then pumped to a separate storage facility.
Potential Job Creation
Not stated.
Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of between A$316-million and A$526-million, with a base case of A$421-million and an internal rate of return of 38%. Payback is estimated at less than three years.
Value
The project is estimated at A$232.2-million.
Duration
It is currently estimated that construction could start in 2021, with first production in 2022.
Latest Developments
The mineral resource estimate for the Kathleen Valley lithium/tantalum project has increased by 353%, on the back of new drilling results.
The Kathleen Valley measured, indicated and inferred resource is now estimated at 74.9-million tonnes grading 1.3% lithium oxide and 140 parts per million of tantalum pentoxide, containing about 0.97-million tonnes of lithium oxide and 2.5-million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.
Liontown MD David Richards has said that the deposit is high grade, with a significant tantalum component, and outcropping mineralisation meaning it will be largely amenable to openpit mining.
“In addition, it is located on granted mining leases close to established, modern, high-quality infrastructure. The other encouraging feature of the project is that, based on the initial metallurgical results and ongoing testwork, the lithium mineralisation, which is spodumene-related, is likely to be conducive to conventional processing.”
A prefeasibility study for Kathleen Valley is under way and due for release in the fourth quarter.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Optiro (geology and resources); Orelogy Consulting (optimisation and mining); Nagrom (process testwork); Lycopodium Minerals (process and infrastructure design, capital and operating expenditures); Knight Piésold (tailings management facilities); AQ2 (hydrology and hydrogeology); and MBS and Botania (environmental studies).
On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.
Contact Details for Project Information
Liontown Resources, tel +61 8 9322 7431 or email info@ltresources.com.au.