Neometals Prepares for Life Beyond Mt Marion
THE INSIDE STORY: A maiden shipment of lithium concentrates to China enables Neometals (ASX: NMT) to focus on downstream lithium processing in Kalgoorlie and fine tuning processing of titanium from its Barrambie project.
Neometals and Mt Marion lithium project partner Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN), recently completed the first shipment of lithium concentrates from Mt Marion lithium project to China.
The shipment of 15,000 tonnes of lithium concentrates was delivered to China’s leading lithium producer, and third member of the Mt Marion partnership, Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd.
The first production and shipment of lithium concentrate follows commissioning and continued ramp up of production from Mt Marion, which is forecast to produce 400,000 tonnes per annum at full capacity.
“The successful first shipment from Mt Marion is a great achievement for Neometals and our project partners,” Neometals managing director Chris Reed told The Resources Roadhouse.
“It has taken a lot of dedication and hard work to deliver a world class project in a fast tracked and cost effective manner from final investment decision to first shipment – all within 18 months.”
One important aspect of the shipment is that it starts a three-year period, after which Neometals and MinRes will regain 51 per cent production from Mt Marion.
To avoid wasting any time, Neometals and MinRes struck a Memorandum of Understanding in September last year, under which they will jointly assess development of a downstream lithium processing facility close to the Mt Marion lithium operation.
The favoured location for the development of a new direct hydroxide sulphate processing plant is near Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
“The main idea behind the development of a domestic downstream processing facility is to eliminate the substantial bulk overseas shipping costs from the process,” Reed explained.
“We are investigating establishing a processing plant close to Kalgoorlie because it has a fortune of infrastructure – a gas pipeline, high voltage power, water and established roads, and sulphuric acid is manufactured in the area.
“Most importantly is the rail link to either of two ports – Kwinana or Fremantle – that we can ship our product through.”
Under the MoU, Neometals and MinRes will assess the technical and commercial feasibility of the construction and operation of a plant with nameplate capacity of 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent production.
Instead of using its patented ELi process, the JV will instead use a conventional sulphate/caustic soda process that is commonly used by leading Chinese lithium converters, including Ganfeng.
The ELi process will continue to be utilised, but separately from arrangements under the MoU mostly for its application to traditional brines producers rather than spodumene/hard rock supply sources.
Elsewhere, Neometals has plans for its 100 per cent-owned Barrambie titanium project, which entail using a proprietary acid leach process to produce high purity titanium dioxide (TiO2), iron (III) oxide (Fe2O3), and vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).
Barrambie is one of the world’s highest grade titanium deposits, containing total Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources of 47.2 million tonnes at 22.2 per cent TiO2, 0.63 per cent V2O5 and 46.7 per cent Fe2O3, at a cut‐off grade of 15 per cent TiO2.
A refurbishment of a laboratory and mini‐plant test facility in Montreal has been completed in preparation for a pilot study to be carried out on ore from the Barrambie project.
The laboratory facilities are at operational status, the mini‐plant has been refurbished and resumed operation on 12 December 2016 while the upgrade of the pilot facility is nearly complete.
“The mini‐plant operation results identified changes to the process that could deliver significant improvements to process economics and final product specification,” Reed said.
“We’ll have a closer look at these and hopefully be able to incorporate them into a revision of the PFS if they prove to deliver an improved project value.”
A full pilot plant evaluation of the proprietary hydrometallurgical technology is planned to commence in the second half of 2017 following the revised mini‐pilot plant optimisation testwork, after which Neometals will decide whether to start a Feasibility Study in 2018.
Neometal’s ultimate strategy is to advance the project to attract a titanium industry partner to fund and operate development of the Barrambie project on a shared equity or JV basis.
Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT)
…The Short Story
HEAD OFFICE
Level 1, 672 Murray Street
West Perth WA 6005
Ph: +61 8 9322 1182
Web: www.neometals.com.au
DIRECTORS
Steven Cole, Christopher Reed, David Reed, Natalia Streltsova