Tawana Resources (Tawana) and Alliance Mineral Assets Limited (AMAL), together in a Joint Venture, have just announced that commercial production was successful at the Bald Hill Lithium Mine which is located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
An announcement was made this morning that commissioning and ramp-up to commercial production of Stage 1 Dense Media Separation (DMS) circuit at Bald Hill Mine has officially been completed. The Bald Hill Mine consists of an open pit, a Dense Media Separation and Spiral Circuits, waste rock dumps, stores, a camp (including administrative and living quarters) and associated infrastructure.
Tawana has affirmed that lithium concentrate production of 18,800 tonnes was made between 14 March and 30 June 2018. In addition to this, three shipments of lithium concentrate were also just completed, with the fourth set to be ready within the next few days. Presently, the lithium concentrate is hauled via Binneringie Road to the Port of Esperance.
Tawana shared that their plant’s performance has achieved higher than the 161 tonnes per hour (tph) nameplate, with rates averaging 206tph in recent weeks, and even reaching up to 230tph at peak performance. This signifies that the plant is currently performing better than expected and Tawana has announced that they will continue to optimise this into the future. In addition to this, further modifications to the plant are planned to achieve an average throughput rate of up to 240tph.
“Operational focus has shifted to plant optimisation and the review of options to further increase throughput in the existing plant and add a second DMS circuit in addition to a fines circuit,” announced Tawana’s Managing Director, Mark Calderwood.
“Bald Hill has established a reputation of producing quality lithium concentrates low in impurities including iron, sodium and potassium,” Mr Calderwood said.
More information on this project can be accessed here.