PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium miner Allkem has lowered its production forecast at the Mt Cattlin mine, in Western Australia, for the 2023 financial year.
The company in its December quarterly report flagged yearly production of 140 000 t to 150 000 t at the operation, but on Tuesday downgraded this to between 114 000 t to 124 000 t, with production in the June half expected at between 80 000 t to 90 000 t.
Production in the first half was impacted by fine grained mineralisation and lower grade ore associated with lower recoveries, which limited the first half production to 34 000 t.
The ASX-listed Allkem told shareholders that further grade control drilling at the mine had confirmed the location and grade of the ore that would be mined over the remainder of the second half of 2023.
Grade control drilling commenced in November last year once the unfavourable ore characteristics were identified. This drilling has continued to progressively cover production areas that will be mined during the remainder of the financial year. Allkem said on Tuesday that results from the drilling have confirmed expectations that production will increase as mining progressively moves from the upper end of the orebody into more central zones. It is expected that the Mt Cattlin process plant will once again be operating at full capacity.
“We are seeing Mt Cattlin returning to normal levels of production after the technical team effectively managed the unfavourable mineralogy and ore characteristics experienced throughout the December half,” said MD and CEO Martín Pérez de Solay.
“Production over the last month has improved materially and with information from the grade control drilling we expect higher production rates to continue.”