The Environmental Protection Authority has given Image Resources conditional approval to go ahead with the development proposal for its Atlas mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin.
The company says that while the recommendation for its 100 per cent-owned project will now undergo a three-week review period, it believes it is now a matter of “when” not “if” Atlas will proceed. After the review period and following the resolution of any appeals by an independent convenor, the project will then be considered for review by the Environment Minister.
Atlas is a high-grade, shallow mineral sands deposit with a strip ratio of about 1:1. It comprises 5.5 million tonnes in ore reserves, with a 9.2 per cent heavy mineral (HM) content, of which 96 per cent is in the proven ore reserves category. The HM includes 11.9 per cent zircon and 7.9 per cent rutile.
All of the Atlas HM is to be sold under existing offtake agreements as they related to the company’s Boonanarring operation, with support through letters of credit prior to shipment.
Image Resources managing director and chief executive officer Patrick Mutz said:
“It has been a much longer journey than originally planned to get to this step in the environmental approvals process for our Atlas project. And, while a commencement date for on-ground activities at Atlas is still not certain, what is certain is that it is no longer a question of “if” Atlas will be approved, but “when”. We have worked tirelessly to satisfy the requirements of the permitting process and Image is ready to implement the Atlas development proposal as soon as practicable.”
Atlas’ development path, outlined in the company’s 2017 bankable feasibility study (BFS), centred around its plan to mine and process all ore reserves at its Boonanarring project and then self-fund the relocation of mining and processing equipment to the Atlas site and continue mining.
Boonanarring was commissioned in the final quarter of 2018 and had polished off the last of the final ore reserves there by the third quarter of last year. It means the company is now fully-prepared – including funding from cash reserves – to shift its mining and processing equipment to Atlas as soon as final development approvals are in hand.
Management says it is also actively engaged in feasibility studies for four other projects that comprise part of its “Chapter 2” growth and sustainability strategy, which envisages operating multiple mines simultaneously to produce multiple products into a global market.
The projects include Bidaminna, with its completed BFS and prefeasibility (PFS) studies and an estimated 10-year mine life, with a definitive feasibility study (DFS) in progress.
The remaining three projects include the 10-year mine life dry-mining Yandanooka project, the McCalls wet (hydraulic or dredge) mining project for a possible 40-year mine life and Mindarra Springs, also a proposed wet mining project looking at a potential 40-year mine life or longer.
Additionally, Image is continuing to assess the potential value-adding opportunity of conversion of ilmenite to synthetic rutile.
Meanwhile, the company has a PFS on the go to determine the potential to locate its planned mineral separation plant at the Boonanarring site, with the idea it could take advantage of existing capitalised infrastructure there and co-locate it with its proposed synthetic rutile facility.
To say Image has a lot on the go right now would be an understatement, but at least its latest stamp of provisional approval on Atlas’ development clears some of the pathway forward.
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By Doug Bright
