Pilbara Minerals said that its board has approved the AUD39m ($29.57m) staged restart at the Ngungaju plant at its fully-owned Pilgangoora Project in Western Australia.
The Australian lithium producer said that the approval marks a significant step towards increasing the production of spodumene concentrate at the lithium-tantalum project.
Operations at the Ngungaju plant will recommence in the December 2021 quarter. Annual production will be ramped up to nearly 180,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) to 200,000dmt by mid-calendar year 2022, said Pilbara Minerals. This will result in the combined annual production capacity of the Pilgangoora Project moving up to 560,000dmt to 580,000dmt.
The Ngungaju plant is one of the two processing plants owned by Pilbara Minerals with the other being the Pilgan plant.
The company had acquired the Altura Lithium Project in January 2021 and renamed it Ngungaju Operation. It was kept under care and maintenance to determine appropriate implementation and operational strategy.
Pilbara Minerals said that the restart of the Ngungaju plant will increase production capacity, enhance the scale of operations, and offer production flexibility to help the company meet the quickly growing market demand.
Pilbara Minerals managing director and CEO Ken Brinsden said: “The well-timed acquisition of the Altura Lithium Operations provides Pilbara Minerals with available spodumene concentrate at the same time the market is expected to grow rapidly to deal with the mass global adoption of lithium-ion battery technology for use in clean energy applications.
“While production costs will likely be slightly elevated during FY22, we remain confident in both Pilgangoora’s pre-eminent position as an important global lithium raw materials supply base and the trend towards lower cost in the coming years as the Ngungaju Plant restarts, normalises and production settles at a higher rate.”
Pilbara Minerals also revealed that it has wrapped up further due diligence on the proposed downstream joint venture with POSCO for developing a lithium hydroxide conversion facility in South Korea. The company said that negotiations and documentation are currently targeted to be completed by the end of July 2021.
