Pilgangoora could rival Greenbushes - Brinsden
KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – The Pilgangoora lithium/tantalum project in Western Australia, could potentially rival the 1.34-million-tonne-a-year Greenbushes lithium mine in terms of production.
ASX-listed Pilbara Minerals MD and CEO Ken Brinsden said on the sidelines of the Diggers & Dealers conference, in Kalgoorlie, that once fully expanded, the Pilgangoora operation could support a 1.1-million-tonne-a-year spodumene concentrate production rate.
“That doesn’t mean that we are going to blindly go out and expand to that size. There is an important part to play in balancing the market, but the scale of Pilgangoora is huge and we are confident in the ability to grow the mine over time, as long as demand and the price conditions are a healthy match,” Brinsden said.
Pilbara in June approved the staged restart of of the Ngungaju plant, previously known as the Altura operations. Pilbara in January this year completed the $175-million acquisition, gaining ownership of Altura’s Pilgangoora lithium project, which was promptly renamed to Ngungaju.
Brinsden said that restart operations were on track for the December quarter, with annual production to be ramped up to approximately 180 000 t/y to 200 000 t/y by mid-2022. This will see the combined annual production capacity of the Pilgangoora project increase to 560 000 t/y to 580 000 t/y.
The restart of operations will cost some A$39-million, and Pilbara is likely to fund the restart from existing cash; however, the miner has previously said that it would give consideration to the potential restructure of its existing syndicated debt facility, provided favourable terms and conditions could be achieved.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation