PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals has started commissioning activities at the Ngungaju plant, which forms part of its Pilgangoora project, in Western Australia.

Pilbara acquired the Ngungaju operation in January this year, after striking a $175-million deal with the administrators of Altura Mining.

A final investment decision was made in June this year to restart the plant, which has a nameplate capacity of some 206 000 t/y, and first ore has now been fed into the plant to support near-term concentrate production.

Pilbara Minerals MD and CEO Ken Brinsden said the start of commissioning marked the start of a staged ramp-up of the Ngungaju facility, representing another significant and exciting milestone in the rapid growth of the Pilgangoora project.

“This is a great result, which marks the culmination of the incredible hard work which our entire team has put in to transform the amazing resource at Pilgangoora into a globally significant lithium raw materials production centre,” he said.

“This first step of the Ngungaju restart has been delivered in less than four months since the board approved a staged restart of Ngungaju, ahead of the guidance we gave to the market.”

Brinsden said that along with the improvement works being made to the Pilgan plant, which are expected to soon increase production capacity from some 330 000 t/y to between 360 000 t/y and 380 000 t/y, Pilbara Minerals is firmly on track to achieve its goal of increasing annual spodumene concentrate production to between 560 000 t/y and 580 000 t/y by the middle of next year.

“With market conditions remaining extremely buoyant and the spodumene concentrate market continuing to show signs of being extremely short of supply, the Ngungaju plant is expected to be capable of delivering uncommitted tonnes into the emerging spot market including through our BMX platform.

“We think that will be a very positive development for the market overall, increasing traded volumes, transparency and ultimately supporting the growth of the lithium raw materials supply chain globally,” Brinsden said.