In a milestone achievement for Liontown, the miner has crushed first ore at its Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia.
First ore was achieved through Liontown’s crushing circuit at the site, after commissioning of the dry plant commenced in late March.
Liontown said its team will now gradually ramp up the volume of ore through the crusher to build a stockpile of crushed ore.
“By starting the commissioning process with the crusher, we’re not only testing the equipment but will have clean ore ready for feeding into the wet plant,” the company said.
The news comes just days after Liontown celebrated a big quarter of progress – as of March 31, Liontown had completed 85 per cent of Kathleen Valley, and approximately 90 per cent of the process plant.
“The March quarter saw tremendous progress across all major work fronts at Kathleen Valley, with construction of the process plant, the critical path to first production, being 90 percent complete on an earned value basis,” Liontown managing director Tony Ottaviano said.
“We are within touching distance of first production and in a very strong position financially with $358.1 million in the bank, together with the undrawn commercial debt facility, providing us sufficient funding through to first production and beyond.
“Securing capital from a leading international and domestic syndicate, as well as government agencies, further reinforces the strength of the underlying technical and financial qualities of Kathleen Valley and provides a very strong endorsement of our project.”
Kathleen Valley remains on schedule for first production in mid-2024.
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