Name and Location
Barrambie titanium project, Australia.

Client
Neometals.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) completed on the Barrambie titanium project has indicated the potential for a viable, hard-rock titanium-mining and -processing operation.

The project contains total indicated and inferred mineral resources of 47.2-million tonnes at 22.2% titanium dioxide (TiO₂), 0.63% vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅), and 46.7% iron oxide (Fe₂O₃), at a cutoff grade of 15% TiO₂. Probable reserves are estimated at 10.76-million tonnes grading at 21.18% of TiO₂, 0.6% of V₂O₅ and 42.5% of Fe₂O₃.

The PFS envisages:
• a mine wet plant at Barrambie treating 550 000 t/y and producing 308 880 t of magnetic concentrate;
• transporting magnetic concentrate by road 834 km to Kwinana in side tipping road trains;
• a chemical processing plant (CPP) at Kwinana, treating 308 880 t of magnetic concentrate using iron leach, titanium leach, titanium hydrolysis, Fe₂O₃ precipitation, vanadium precipitation and acid regeneration; and
• a CPP average yearly production output of 98 000 t of +99% TiO₂, 2 000 t of +98.5% V₂O₅ and 234 000 t of synthetic Fe₂O₃ pigment.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 12% discount rate, of A$355-million and an internal rate of return 21%, with a payback of 3.9 years.

Value
Preproduction capital cost, excluding engineering, procurement and construction management and contingency, is estimated at A$549-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Provider of mineral processing and associated infrastructure solutions to the global resources industry Sedgman supports the project progressing to a full feasibility study (FS) to assess the many opportunities that have been identified to improve the economics of the project through the optimisation of the flowsheet.

Neometals now plans to undertake full pilot plant evaluation of the proprietary hydrometallurgical technology, with this work scheduled for the current financial year.

Subject to the success of the full pilot scale testwork, Neometals intends to proceed to a FS.

The currently preferred project development strategy is to advance the project to a suitable stage of evaluation to obtain a titanium industry partner who will fund and operate the development of the Barrambie project on a shared equity or joint venture basis.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Snowden (economic assessment) and Sedgman (capital and operating costs).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Neometals, tel +61 8 9322 1182, fax +61 8 9321 0556 or email info@neometals.com.au.
Snowden, tel +61 8 9213 9213, fax +61 8 9322 2576 or email perth@snowdengroup.com.
Sedgman, tel +61 8 6255 0000 or email perth@sedgman.com.