Lithium producer Pilbara Minerals has resolved to approve the stage two expansion at its Pilgangoora mine once all necessary approvals and funding have been secured.
Lithium producer Pilbara Minerals has resolved to approve the stage two expansion at its Pilgangoora mine once all necessary approvals and funding have been secured.
The Ken Brinsden-led company began production at Pilgangoora this year, which has a current capacity of 320,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate.
The $231 million stage two expansion, which includes a new 3 million tonnes per annum processing train, is forecast to boost production to between 800,000 and 850,000tpa.
Pilbara said a final investment decision was subject to obtaining necessary regulatory approvals and securing the balance of project funding.
“The balance of the financing is the subject of continuing engagement with both bondholders for their consent and the offtake counterparties and is targeted to be finalised during the current quarter,” the company said in a statement to the ASX.
“Stage two project works are continuing with the company having already placed some long-lead orders for major equipment to allow it to meet its objective of commissioning stage two from the December quarter, 2019.
“Further long-lead equipment orders are expected to be placed in the coming weeks.
“The detailed engineering for stage two is also well under way.”
Pilbara said the company’s second shipment of spodumene had departed Port Hedland in the second half of October.
There are currently seven lithium mines operating within Western Australia.
The largest of these is Talison Lithium’s Greenbushes mines in the South West.
The Greenbushes mine is the world’s largest source of lithium, producing about 649,000t of concentrate in 2017, or 29 per cent of the global supply.
Talison has approved two upgrades – a $320 million expansion to double capacity to 1.3mtpa, and a $561 million project to boost output to 1.95mtpa.
Other WA players include Galaxy Resources, which owns the Mt Cattlin mine, while Mineral Resources operates both the Mt Marion and Wodgina mines.
Wodgina has a capacity of 750,000tpa, while Mt Marion produced 435,000t of spodumene concentrate in FY18 and has a capacity of 450,000tpa.
Galaxy produced 91,753t of concentrate in the 2018 financial year at Mt Cattlin, which is located near Ravensthorpe.
It is currently building optimisation circuits, a process expected to lift output to between 220,000tpa and 240,000tpa.
Altura Mining operates at Pilgangoora, near the Pilbara Minerals mine, with its stage one project forecast to produce 220,000tpa and a second stage expansion taking total output to 440,000tpa.
Tawana Resources operates the Bald Hill project, which produces about 155,000tpa.
Shares in Pilbara finished ahead 2.4 per cent at 86 cents each today.
