Lithium company Prospect Resources on Monday reported that it had completed 92% of the work on its engineering, procurement and construction scope for the high-purity petalite pilot plant on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe.
Some of the milestones completed for the plant include flowsheet and detailed engineering, procurement of equipment, power supply connection and reticulation on site, ore stockpile prepared to feed crushing circuit, and earth- and civil works.
Prospect said that production and first shipment of petalite product would start by the end of June.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to preside over a ceremony marking the start of production later this month.
Prospect MD Sam Hosack commented in a statement that the company was “shovel ready” to develop the Arcadia project, at a time when lithium prices are on the rise.
An updated definitive feasibility study envisages a 2.4-million-tonne-a-year conventional openpit mining operation, producing average concentrate of about 173 000 t/y of 6% spodumene, 24 000 t/y of chemical grade petalite and 98 000 t/y technical grade petalite at a concentrate grade of 4%, as well as 174 000 lb/y of tantalum at a concentrate grade of 25%.