Altura Mining Limited has provided an update on Stage 1 operations from the recently commissioned Altura Lithium Project, which is located in Pilgangoora, approximately 120 kilometres from Port Hedland in Western Australia.
The company experienced some initial challenges and subsequent delays in stable production throughput, caused by the complexity of the process plant, but the processing capability has since delivered positive increases in performance during the last quarter and is continuing to improve.
Altura has been pleased with the product quality outcome of all cargoes dispatched, with four cargoes totalling 24,000 dry metric tonnes dispatched to Chinese based customers during the December 2018 quarter.
Stage 1 production from the project has a target nameplate capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum of 6 per cent grade lithium oxide.
Altura plans to dispatch regular monthly shipments of at least one cargo and moving to two cargoes each other month once nameplate is reached.
The company further expects several months of steady growth in the production profile, which will culminate in reaching nameplate capacity of Stage 1.
Altura Managing Director, James Brown, said the company is continuing to be buoyed by the quality of the product they have shipped to their offtake partners thus far.
“From an operational and commissioning standpoint, we continue to optimise our processes which have culminated in improving performances across the board. Initially, there were some challenges with the performance of the processing plant, but it is not uncommon for a new plant to experience operational delays,” Mr Brown said.
“We are confident that the majority of these issues have been rectified and we look forward to the continued ramp-up of Stage 1 and further production of high-grade lithium concentrate,” he added.
Altura plans to make a Final Investment Decision after a review of Stage 1 operations.
More information on the Altura Lithium Project can be found here.