PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The share price of ASX-listed Mineral Resources recovered slightly on Thursday to close at A$14.78 a share, after a significant fall earlier this week.

Share prices fell from A$15.53 a share to A$14.75 a share earlier this week after media reports suggested that the company had been blocked from starting the commissioning of the next phase of its Wodigna lithium project, in Western Australia, saying that regulators had found that a tailings dam was seeping into groundwater.

A report by The Australian said that the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) had refused to approve the commissioning of the second train at Wodgina until Mineral Resources was able to demonstrate that the company had reduced seepage.

Mineral Resources told shareholders that the tailings dam at Wodgina was functioning as expected and engineered, and that seepage rates were in line with expectations for the establishment of the dam.

The company said that the DWER had requested further information about the water balance at the project before it would permit commissioning of the second train to start, and added that the company was working with the state government department to provide the information within the next week.

Until the approval has been received, the commissioning of the second train will be limited to running water.

Mineral Resources has also rubbished claims that the appropriate approvals for the airport at Wodgina were not in place, with the miner saying that the construction of the runway was complete, and that work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority was continuing.

Mineral Resources is currently mining direct shipping ore at the Wodgina project while progressing its openpit pre-strip and constructing its spodumene concentrate plant with a capacity to produce 750 000 t/y of 6% spodumene concentrate.