PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Northern Territory government has approved ASX-listed Core Lithium’s mine management plan for its proposed Finniss lithium project.
The Northern Territory’s Primary Industry and Resources Minister Paul Kirby said that it was the first ever lithium mine to be approved outside of Western Australia, and was the first new mine of significant scale to be approved in the Northern Territory since 2013.
“The government knows that local jobs and economic recovery have never been more important. The resources sector is going to play a huge role in our recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, and the milestone achieved by the Finniss lithium project is very good news for Territorians.
“The first three years of this project are expected to inject over half-a-billion dollars into the Northern Territory economy and create around 200 jobs for Territorians within an hour of Darwin,” the Minister said.
A previously completed prefeasibility study into the Finniss project estimated a pre-production capital requirement of A$53.5-million to develop a one-million-tonne-a-year operation producing 225 000 t/y of lithium concentrate.
Core MD Stephen Biggins on Friday said that with project approvals now in place, and mine life likely to double or even triple as the company updated the feasibility study by mid-2020, Core’s Finniss project was positioned at the front-end of the line of new global lithium supply as electric vehicle manufacture recovers post Covid-19.
Core is aiming to complete offtake arrangements and have the project construction ready in 2020, ahead of sourcing debt and equity to achieve financial close.