PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands miner MZI Resources has shipped its first leucoxene product from its Keysbrook project, in Western Australia.
The shipment of 6 825 t of leucoxene was bound for offtake customer Chemours in the US.
MZI MD Trevor Matthews said on Friday that the first shipment represented Keysbrook’s arrival as the single-biggest producer of high-value leucoxene in the world, as the company continued to ramp up cash flow generation and build value for shareholders through high margin product sales.
Leucoxene was expected to account for nearly 70% of yearly sales from Keysbrook.
Nearly 73% of all production planned for 2016 was currently committed under a five-year offtake agreement, comprising 100% of zircon concentrate and some 65% of all leucoxene products.
To date, MZI has shipped more than 3 800 t of zircon concentrate to Chinese offtake customers under a five-year offtake agreement for zircon concentrate produced at Keysbrook.
Keysbrook was expected to produce some 95 000 t/y of leucoxene and zircon products.