Altura provides update on Pilgangoora lithium project

Production from the Altura Lithium Mine commenced on 25 July 2018 with the first haulage of spodumene product to the Qube storage facility in Port Hedland following on 7 August 2018.

Current mining operations are proceeding as planned with good overall recoveries from the mine, with run-of-mine (ROM) stocks currently at 130 000 t with an average grade of 1.20% Li2O.

The Altura mining team is focusing on ramping up production levels to nameplate capacity. The daily monitoring of production tonnages and grade versus the commissioning forecasts indicate the mining and processing are performing at a high level.

Product feed into the process plant has been successfully increased during the commissioning phase with spodumene concentrate grade and recoveries exceeding expectations. The first 4000 t of product has been hauled to the Qube storage facility in Port Hedland. It should be noted these results are a combination of production testing on site and verification sampling from the storage facility itself. All samples were assayed by Intertek utilising the Altura owned laboratory on site at the Altura Lithium Mine.

The ramp up to nameplate production of 220 000 t of 6% Li2O spodumene concentrate is targeted for the end of calendar year 2018. Shipments of concentrate are planned at regular intervals in order to suit the offtake partners’ consumption requirements. The verification process required in order to establish the Altura Lithium product will require varied size cargoes to lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide converters based in China.

Cargoes will be shipped on ‘Handy’ sized vessels of up to 40 000 t. As is common practice, most of Altura’s cargoes will be shared amongst other commodity producers shipping from the Qube facility at Port Hedland.

Altura will receive payment for its cargoes on presentation of documents under standard letter of credit arrangements once the product is loaded and the independent sampling and analysis of the shipment has been completed. This is in accordance with the binding offtake agreements.

Altura’s appointed shipping agents have booked and are managing the company’s maiden cargo.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/14092018/altura-provides-update-on-pilgangoora-lithium-project/