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- In light of Covid-19, Galaxy Resources (GXY) has chosen to utilise low-grade ore that has been stockpiled at its Mt Cattlin spodumene project in WA
- This is part of its strategy to preserve resource life and control costs
- Ore sorters have been successfully installed and commissioned to upgrade the ore
- The company hopes this process will improve overall recoveries while maintaining a final grade of six per cent lithium concentrate
- Positively, Galaxy reported that 33,000 dry metric tonnes of lithium concentrate was shipped from the Esperance Port last week
- This shows facilities in China are slowly resuming operations since the coranavirus disruption
- Additionally, Galaxy expects to meet its production target of between 14,000 and 17,000 for the current quarter
- Company shares are down 1.57 per cent and are trading for 78.3 cents each
In light of Covid-19, Galaxy Resources (GXY) has provided an operational and shipping update at its Mt Cattlin spodumene project in WA.
The company has chosen to utilise low-grade ore that has been stockpiled at the site. This is part of its strategy to prioritise value over volume in order to preserve resource life and control unit costs.
A key part of this strategy is using ore sorters at the front-end of the process plant to upgrade the ore by detecting and rejecting basalt, which is a mafic extrusive igneous rock, before it’s presented to the process plant.
The ore sorters have now been commissioned after a successful pilot program in 2019 that demonstrated over 70 per cent of basalt in the stockpiled ore could be rejected.
Stockpiled ore and mined material are crushed and sorted into three sections, with only coarse material presented to the ore sorter.
Each ore sorter detects the darker basalt rocks through a camera and rejects it using high-pressure air jets as it falls through the sorter. The upgraded ore should then have a basalt content less than three per cent before going to the main process plant.
Further basalt is rejected by the product ore sorter at the back end of the process plant to get a final product grade of six per cent Li2O (lithium oxide).
Stockpiled ore will contribute 40 per cent of throughput this year, allowing mining volumes to be reduced.
The company has already covered the mining costs associated with the stockpiled ore.
A total of 33,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium concentrate was shipped from the Esperance Port on March 11. Galaxy considers this a good sign as it indicates that processing facilities in China are slowly resuming operations after the disruptions caused by the coronavirus.
Galaxy expects the lithium concentrate production volume for the current quarter will be between 14,000 and 17,000 dmt after operations restarted last month since the holiday period.
Company shares are down 1.57 per cent and are trading for 78.3 cents each at 11:58 am AEDT.
