PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Pilbara Minerals has awarded an openpit mining contract for its Pilgangoora lithium project to Maca.
Pilbara said on Thursday that with an initial two-year term, plus three one-year options to extend, the contract was a key operational contract for the Pilgangoora project, and follows the completion of a competitive tender process and due diligence process.
The contract, which includes drill and blast and load and haul services, was based on a mining rate of around eight-million tonnes a year for the production of two-million tonnes a year of ore.
Work on the contract is expected to start in November, with mining activities to be progressively ramped up through the rest of 2017, and into 2018, in order to meet Pilbara’s target of starting spodumene concentrate shipments in the second quarter of 2018.