Name of the Project
Arcadia lithium project.

Location
The project is located about 38 km east of Harare, in Zimbabwe.

Client
Prospect Resources.

Project Description
The results of a prefeasibility study (PFS) have confirmed and validated Prospect’s objective to develop the project into a significant producer of high-quality spodumene, petalite and tantalite concentrates in the near term.

The project has a maiden probable ore reserve estimated at 15.8-million tonnes grading 1.34% lithium oxide (Li2O) and 125 parts per million (ppm) tantalum pentoxide.

The probable reserve forms the basis of a standalone 1.2-million-tonne-a-year mining and processing operation, with a 15-year life-of-mine (LoM), producing on average 75 000 t/y spodumene and 155 000 t/y petalite concentrates for the battery (chemical) and glass/ceramics (technical) markets.

Run-of-mine material will be extracted through an operation that will feed a process facility, which will use standard communition, dense-media separation, flotation and gravity techniques to recover spodumene, petalite and tantalite concentrates, as well as silica sand and mica as by-products. Lithia and tantalite concentrates will be bulk-transported to Beira for onward shipping to downstream customers. 

Any by-products will supply the domestic industrials markets in Zimbabwe.

The mining method is based on six nested sequential openpits – 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The final pit – Pit 5 – will be about 1.1 km × 750 m, with a maximum depth of 130 m on the final high-wall. The total surface area of Pit 5 will be about 0.55 km².

Mining operations will be conducted using a contracted fleet for key equipment, with the prospect of supplying some ancillary vehicles. Ore and waste will be handled by diesel hydraulic excavators and articulated dump trucks. 

Ore will be trucked to the crushing station, where it will be directly dumped into the primary crusher or stockpiled before front-end loader feeding. 

Waste material comprising meta basalt and some pegmatites will require blasting, except for some of the very upper weathered rocks.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $139-million and an internal rate of return of 39%, with a payback of two years.

Value
The project will require capital expenditure of $52.5-million.

Duration
The PFS envisages a nine-month lead time to production, with plant commissioning in the third quarter of 2018.

Latest Developments
Prospect Resources has cemented an agreement with Hong Kong-listed Sinomine Resources Exploration, which will result in the development of the Arcadia lithium project.

The two companies signed a conditional placement and framework agreement in November under which Sinomine will invest A$10-million through a share placement, priced at 5c a share. It has also agreed to an offtake agreement at the Arcadia mine for 390 000 t of spodumene concentrate and more than one-million tonnes of petalite concentrate over a proposed seven-year offtake period.

Prospect has completed the A$10-million share placement, priced at 6c a share, with Sinomine taking more than 166.6-million shares in Prospect.

In addition to the placement, certain terms under the conditional offtake agreement have also been favourably renegotiated with respect to the pricing formula.

Further amendments include the requirement for Sinomine to prepay $10-million under the offtake agreement, with these funds payable on the installation of a ball mill at the project.

Further, Prospect has also reduced the offtake volumes to be supplied to Sinomine to about 70% of the earlier-agreed volumes, with offtake volumes now classified as tonnes of spodumene, petalite and lithia units, giving Prospect the flexibility to alter supply quantities of spodumene and petalite.

The surplus is expected to give Prospect flexibility to negotiate offtake terms with other lithium downstream customers and enable the company to divert additional spodumene and petalite volumes to a proposed company-owned, lithium carbonate facility.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Hatch (PFS for lithium carbonate and hydroxide plant).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Prospect Resources, tel +61 8 9217 3300, fax +61 8 9388 3006 or email info@prospectresources.com.au.