JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands developer MZI Resources was on target to ship the first batch of saleable product from its $70-million flagship Keysbrook minerals sands project in early 2016, the ASX-listed company reported on Friday.

The company  would start commissioning the project, which is located about 70 km from Perth, in Western Australia, in November this year.

MZI aims to produce more than 95 000 t/y of leucoxene and zircon from Keysbrook over its 5.5-year lifespan, which could be extended by a further 15 years based on mineral resources pending further approvals and land arrangements.

The company reported that construction at Keysbrook was 65% complete and that it was currently erecting the wet concentration facility.

All major earth works and civil works have been completed and the process water dams have been completed and lined. All the spiral banks, which are the primary separation equipment for the heavy minerals, have been delivered to the site and are awaiting installation, which would be completed over the course of the next two months.

The mining feed unit, which would pump slurried ore from the mining area to the wet concentration plant, was being fabricated and trial assembly was planned for next month. This would take place prior to its delivery at site.

Further, the installation of coronastats, which were the primary separation equipment for Keysbrook’s L88 product, had started in the new annex at its strategic partner Doral Mineral Sands’ mineral processing plant.

MZI noted that equipment installation was proceeding in parallel with structural steel construction to provide maximum efficiency.

Further, the company said that with the majority of the operations’ professional and supervisory roles filled, interviews had started to recruit the Keysbrook mobile equipment and fixed plant operator, as well as maintenance technicians.

MZI emphasised that the majority of Keysbrook employees would be recruited from residents of the local communities surrounding the mine.

“The Keysbrook project continues to progress on budget, on schedule and is two-thirds complete. We still have several months of development ahead of us, but [we] are increasingly confident of bringing the project to nameplate production in accordance with the project schedule,” MZI MD Trevor Matthews concluded.