Birimian launches internal review into asset future

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Birimian has announced an internal review to de-risk its lithium and gold assets.

The junior said on Tuesday that the board was investigating options for its gold assets, as the value of the assets were not reflected in the current share price. The investigation into the gold assets will be aimed at maximising shareholder value, with Birimian saying it was considering a range of matters.

The company was also looking to enhance its management team as part of efforts to fast-track the development of its lithium assets, in order to finalise mine permitting and development studies to complement the existing Mali team.

A scoping study completed earlier this year on the company’s Bougouni lithium project estimated that a capital investment of $83.4-million for a two-staged development, with the mine life estimated at 13 years.

The initial estimated start-up capital is $47.2-million. The Stage 1 operation will involve a one-million-tonne-a-year high-grade openpit mine, which will supply material to a conventional dense media separation (DMS) plant.

Scope has also been defined to transition the processing plant to treat medium-grained material by DMS and flotation in later years as a Stage 2 development.

Meanwhile, Birimian will continue discussions with existing memorandum of understanding parties, and potentially new partners, to progress discussions regarding mine development, production pre-payments and other forms of potential financing for the development of the lithium project.