Bald Hill partners in new lithium offtake talks

Joint-venture partners Tawana Resources and Alliance Minerals Assets have started offtake discussions for the increased lithium concentrate that they expect to come from their Bald Hill mine in Western Australia.

The two companies, which are planning to merge in December, already have an offtake agreement with Hong Kong-based Burwill Commodity but are seeking additional partners as they consider increasing plant throughput to 300 t/h from around 200 t/h.

Tawana said during a presentation delivered at the Technology and Low Emissions Conference in Perth that it has completed a fines optimisation study and is now adding a third dense media separation circuit to increase plant flexibility and treat material ranging in size from 0.5mm-18mm.

An increase in plant throughput to 300 t/h is also aimed at increasing recoveries to 72-80pc. This is expected to increase production capacity by 110pc when compared to Bald Hill's pre-feasibility base case of 161 t/h and recovery levels of 65pc. The expansion is expected to bring significant benefits to operating costs.

Bald Hill produced 28,419t of lithium concentrate in the July-September quarter and is expected to export 55,000-60,000t to its offtake partner during July-December. It produced 36,000 lbs of tantalite in July-September and completed its first tantalite sale in October.