Image Resources has started transporting heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) from the company’s new Atlas mineral sands project, 170 kilometres north of Perth, by trucking the first batch to the Port of Geraldton ready for shipping in April.
Process commissioning at Atlas began early last month and is ahead of schedule, the company says. Five weeks in, throughput rates are now up to 80 per cent of the design capacity and the plant is operating at 95 per cent of its capacity.
Management says the early positive signs bear all the hallmarks of a repeat of the company’s earlier profitable Boonanarring mining operation, which also started within two months.
Image’s early decision to integrate Mineral Technologies’ innovative CT-1 spiral technology into the wet concentration plant’s rougher circuit at site also appears to be paying dividends.
The compact separators have been designed to create feed densities of more than 60 per cent solids, which then slashes the plant’s water demand by nearly two-thirds.
Image says the new technology is delivering impressive results thus far with very high-quality HMC coming out the back end with up to 94 per cent heavy mineral content and 21 per cent zircon.
Image Resources managing director and chief executive Patrick Mutz said: “The first hallmark of competent project design and construction is a short commissioning cycle and Atlas is shaping up to be another example of the positive efforts of the project development, construction and commissioning teams. The second hallmark is achieving design-heavy mineral recovery and product quality early in the commissioning cycle.”
Although Image remains in rare financial health with $20 million in cash as of the end of December, it has endured nearly two years of almost no revenue since shutting down its highly successful Boonanarring project.
To help with funding, Image locked in an upfront US$20 million (A$31.6m) boost from its long-time Chinese partner Shantou Natfort Zirconium and Titanium Co (Natfort), which will be repaid in HMC.
Under the agreement, 25 per cent of each Atlas HMC shipment will go directly to Natfort to cover the advance at full market price. The remaining 75 per cent - also bound for Natfort – will be purchased upfront using standard letters of credit to ensure Image gets paid before each shipment sets sail.
The company is likely to be breathing much easier now that production at the new site appears to be on track and will soon start to bring in cash.
Under an earlier feasibility study, Atlas is forecast to generate $62m in pre-tax cashflow across a two-year mine life from processing 2.6 million tonnes of material per annum (tpa) for 446,000tpa of HMC.
The deposit packs a serious punch hosting 5.5mt of high-grade ore at 9.2 per cent total heavy minerals, including a rich mix of 11.9 per cent zircon, 7.9 per cent rutile and a standout 61 per cent titanium dioxide in ilmenite. The mine also sports an ultra-low 1:1 strip ratio.
Image views its new Atlas mine as the first rung of a step ladder in bigger plans, which include setting up multiple mines, downstream processing ilmenite into synthetic rutile and accessing a broader global market.
The second step, which will be funded from cashflow coming out of Atlas, will open up the company’s 60mt Yandanooka HMC deposit and the huge 3.6-billion-tonne McCalls HMC project, 30km east of its existing 123mt Bindaminna prospect.
Image delivered a head-turning pre-feasibility study on Yandanooka a year ago, projecting an 8.2-year mine life and 130,000 tonnes of HMC production per year.
Capital expenditure is expected to peak at just $50m and the company forecasts a hefty $277m life-of-mine EBITDA return from the second project, which should pay for itself inside 15 months.
As the mineral sands market continues to show signs of improvement, with ilmenite prices now cracking the US$300 (A$472) per tonne mark, Image appears to be booking itself into a front-row seat in the mineral sands sector.
The coming months will be crucial in solidifying Image’s reputation as a premier supplier of critical minerals to global markets.
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By James Pearson
