Mt Cattlin slated for first exports in July

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Mt Cattlin spodumene/tantalum mine, in Western Australia, is on track to export its first concentrate in July this year, as ASX-listed General Mining Corporation works to restart production.

General Mining Corporation last year inked an agreement with fellow-listed Galaxy Resources to acquire a 50% stake in the mine for A$25-million, with the company committing to an initial A$7-million spend to restart production.

Upon the restart, General Mining would earn an initial 14% interest and 50% profit interest in the Mt Cattlin project.

The company reported this week that all long-lead items required to restart Mt Cattlin were ordered in late December, with the fines circuit slated for commissioning in late March, while the coarse circuit was due to be commissioned in late June.

Following the first exports of concentrate in July this year, the plant optimisation process would be completed by December.

Based on the current mineral resource and ore reserve estimates at Mt Cattlin, the project could deliver some 11 500 t/y of spodumene over an initial 17-year mine life. The project was estimated to require a capital investment of A$14.7-million to restart and could generate life-of-mine revenue of A$1.16-billion and net cash flow of A$526-million.

The project was expected to have a throughput rate of 800 000 t/y and would produce an additional 85 924 t of tantalite.

Previously mined for both spodumene and tantalum by-products, the Mt Cattlin operation produced over 100 000 t of spodumene concentrate before the operation was suspended in 2012.

In October last year, General Mining signed a sales and distribution agreement with Japanese major Mitsubishi Corporation for all of the lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate produced at the Mt Cattlin project, allowing the Japanese company to sell the spodumene concentrates into China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.