Name and Location
Pilgangoora lithium project, Pilbara, Australia.

Client
Altura Mining.

Project Description
Altura’s 100%-owned Pilgangoora project comprises a series of spodumene-bearing pegmatites. The area has been extensively explored in the past for a wide variety of minerals, including tin, tantalum, base metals, nickel and gold. A feasibility study completed on the project has shown superior outcomes to those of the mining study on the project in almost every area. It is based on an ore feed of about 1.4-million tonnes a year to the process plant to deliver average output, at steady state, of 215 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate containing 6% lithium oxide. This is an increase from the 150 000 t/y estimated in the mining study.

The current life-of-mine (LoM) plan is based on direct feed of ore to the process plant from years 1 to 12 while building a low-grade stockpile. Material from the stockpile will be fed to the process plant in Years 12 to 14. The LoM production target of 18.47-million tonnes consists entirely of probable ore reserves estimated at 18.4-million tonnes.

Mining will be undertaken using a staged approach, starting with a smaller pit mined at the northern limit of the deposit (Stage 1), advancing to the south in seven stages to reach the ultimate designed pit.

Conventional bulk mining methods using hydraulic excavators, dump trucks and drill and blast, coupled to a run-of-mine (RoM) stockpile, will be used.

Ore will be trucked directly from the blasted faces to the RoM stockpile and fed to the primary crusher using a front-end loader.

Allowance has been made for blending from the RoM and external stockpiles.

The process plant has been designed to process 1.4-million tonnes of Pilgangoora lithium ore, beneficiating RoM ore to a 6.5% lithium concentrate. The plant will create a coarse and fine concentrate using industry-standard separation techniques for hard-rock spodumene production from a pegmatite orebody. A tailings storage facility (TSF) is required to accommodate fine tailings from the process plant and facilitate the recovery of process water. The mine will produce 420 000 t/y of fines tailings over 14 years, based on an indicated and inferred resource of 35.7-million tonnes.

Concentrate will be exported by ship from Port Hedland to lithium producers, predominantly in China, for further processing into a wide range of lithium chemicals, including lithium carbonate (standard and battery grade), lithium hydroxide, lithium metal and lithium chloride.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The feasibility study has indicated a net present value (NPV), at a 10% discount rate, of A$382-million from an NPV of A$277-million in the mining study. The project’s internal rate of return (IRR) has increased from 42.5% to 59.5%. Payback has decreased from 2.3 years to 1.7 years, compared with the mining study.

Value
The project has a capital estimate of A$129.26-million.

Duration
Production is planned for the third quarter of 2017, following a nine-month construction period.

Latest Developments
Altura has agreed to the terms of a native title agreement (NTA) with the Njamal People, the traditional owners of the land at Altura’s 100%-owned Pilgangoora lithium project.

The signing of the NTA is the final prerequisite approval to grant two mining leases covering Altura’s planned development of the lithium project.

“Altura is now well-positioned to deliver the project in line with the previously disclosed aggressive timeframe, with key factors such as a balance sheet, an amenable resource, a defined process flow sheet, a significant binding offtake and a clear strategy to market,” the company has said.

As Altura fast-tracks the project to production in 2017, the company’s updates on the recent activities at the project have included the awarding of the definitive feasibility study process design to multidisciplinary global engineering group DRA in June; the mobilisation of three drill rigs for the expansion of resources and reserves; the identification of eight prospective lithium target areas within the existing tenement package as well as four tons of mineralised core for process flow optimisation testwork, with significant improvements such as the adoption of high-pressure grinding roll technology in the crushing circuit.

Developments have also included a water exploration drilling programme, culminating in several production bores being identified and tested, and agreements reached with the local authority to upgrade the haul road. Design of the haul road and the issuing of power plant tenders have started.

Altura has also prepared a mining proposal to submit to the Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum this month. 

Key Contracts and Suppliers
DRA (preliminary engineering and design of the processing facilities).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Altura Mining, tel +61 8 9488 5100, fax +61 8 9488 5199 or email cosec@alturamining.com.