Diversified resources company Mineral Resources (MinRes) has announced plans to transition its Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia into care and maintenance following a strategic review.
Mineral Resources’ decision comes in response to a prolonged period of low spodumene concentrate prices, which has affected the project’s financial viability.
The transition, which begins this week, aims to preserve cash and maintain the value of the mine’s spodumene orebody with plans for a restart when market conditions improve.
Mining and mobile maintenance operations at the Bald Hill lithium mine will cease immediately, while the spodumene concentrate plant and accommodation village are scheduled to temporarily close by early December 2024.
The move will also impact around 300 employees. Mineral Resources intends to prioritise the redeployment of Bald Hill workers to other operations within the company’s portfolio across Western Australia.
In cases where redeployment is not possible, a redundancy process will be followed, said Mineral Resources.
The final shipment of spodumene concentrate from the Bald Hill mine is expected to be completed by December.
For FY25, the volumes of spodumene concentrate that contains 6% lithium oxide (SC6) shipped are now estimated at 60,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt), a significant reduction from the previously anticipated 120,000 to 145,000dmt.
A small team of around 10 employees will remain on site to manage the ramp-down process and oversee care and maintenance activities.
The company will continue to streamline mine plans and evaluate the project’s scale and operating structure to ensure readiness for a future restart during the care and maintenance phase.
MinRes managing director Chris Ellison said: “Placing Bald Hill on care and maintenance is a prudent decision but one not made lightly. The decision aligns with the work we have done across the company in recent months to reduce costs.
“The significant upgrade to the Mineral Resources statement is evidence that Bald Hill is a high-quality asset with a long-term future.”
Located approximately 50km southeast of Kambalda in the Goldfields region, the Bald Hill lithium mine was acquired by Mineral Resources in November 2023.
The site operates a processing plant with an annual production capacity of about 150,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate.
In addition to the operational changes, the company has released an updated Mineral Resources estimate for the Bald Hill lithium deposit as of 30 June 2024.
The new estimate shows a substantial 168% increase from the previous estimate made in June 2018, with the updated resources now standing at 58.1 million tonnes at 0.94% Li2O.
In June this year, Mineral Resources also announced plans to shut the iron ore operations at the Yilgarn Hub in Western Australia by 31 December 2024.
