KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals on Wednesday revealed that it would spend about $50-million in the first phase of its Stage 2 expansion of its Pilgangoora operation, in Western Australia.
Pilbara MD and CEO Ken Brinsden told delegates at Diggers & Dealers that the company is considering a staged development sequence for the Stage 2 expansion, to match production capacity with market demand.
“Our lesson has been to be really careful on how you think about subsequent expansions,” Brinsden said, pointing to the fact that the development rate of chemical conversion capacity has been slower than the rate of development for spodumene concentrate operations.
“We have been more successful in the development and ramp-up of spodumene concentrate operations in comparison to customer capacity to deliver chemical conversion capacity,” Brinsden said.
He noted that the company is now looking at the delivery and timing of the Stage 2 expansion, which would ultimately expand Pilgagoora to a five-million-tonne-a-year operation, producing between 800 000 t/y and 850 000 t/y of high-quality spodumene concentrate, up from the current production of around 314 000 t/y.
The initial cost estimate for the Stage 2 expansion had been estimated at A$231-million, but Brinsden said on Wednesday that the company was now looking to spend only about A$50-million on the first phase of the Stage 2 expansion.
Pilbara in the March quarter of this year announced that the commissioning of the Stage 2 expansion has been targeted for the September quarter of 2020.
Brinsden was optimistic about the development of chemical conversion capacity, noting that both 2019 and 2020 would see more capacity come on line.