PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The first 85 000 t of direct shipping ore (DSO) from the Pilgangoora lithium/tantalum project, in Western Australia, has been shipped by ASX-listed Atlas Iron under a mine gate sales agreement with producer Pilbara Minerals.
The lithium was exported to China under an offtake agreement under which Atlas would sell up to 1.5-milion tonnes of lithium DSO to Sinosteel on a fixed-priced basis.
Pilbara MD and CEO Ken Brinsden said on Monday that the first DSO shipments marked an exciting step in the emergence of Pilgangoora on the world stage as a major new supplier of lithium raw materials.
“This first DSO shipment represents the first product sold from our new world-class mine that has left Australian shores bound for customers in China.”
Brinsden added that the start of DSO shipments under the sales agreement with Atlas came only days after the company started commissioning of the Pilgangoora concentrator, and prepared to produce its first ever batch of spodumene concentrate.
“The DSO operation will generate valuable early revenue and cash flow for the company while we progress the commissioning and ramp-up of the main long term concentrate operation.”
Under the terms of the Atlas agreement, Pilbara will deliver a minimum of one-million tonnes of unprocessed run-of-mine lithium/tantalum material to Atlas on a mine gate sale basis, based on a delivery schedule which is designed to allow Atlas to ship 100 000 t/m of DSO to offtake customers.