PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Foundation work has started at the scarred Windimurra vanadium project, in Western Australia, with owner Atlantic reporting that the reconstruction of the fire-damaged beneficiation plant would be completed by February.
Vanadium production at Windimurra has been suspended since February this year, following a major fire in the beneficiation plant.
The company took the opportunity to review its business, as well as the mine plan and crushing, milling and beneficiation circuit of the Windimurra plant, based on its commissioning and ramp-up experience over the last two years.
Atlantic subsequently reported that a A$130-million investment would be required to implement a new CBM flowsheet design and to assist with debottlenecking the project.
In October, Atlantic awarded the design and construction contract to Primero Group to rebuild the plant, and the engineering company had now mobilised to site and had established construction infrastructure.
The fabrication of steel and platework for the rebuild was under way at various workshops in Perth, and orders for other critical components had been placed, while long-lead items, ordered earlier, continued to be delivered.
With the new process flowsheet and the rebuild of the fire-damaged beneficiation plant, the project would likely produce between 4 800 t/y and 5 200 t/y of contained vanadium.