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Minemakers eyes Wonarah FS completion by mid-2014

21st November 2013

By: Esmarie Iannucci

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

  

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Phosphate hopeful Minemakers is investigating a smaller-scale, value-add operation at its Wonarah project, in the Northern Territory.

A 2011 scoping study for the Wonarah project concluded that a capital investment of some A$1.6-billion would be required to support a 1.4-million-tonne-a-year superphosphoric acid (SPA) operation.

The SPA operation would incorporate improved hard process (IHP) technology, which was developed by Florida-based JDCPhosphate.

IHP is a thermal technology that improves the efficiency of SPA production from rock phosphate. The process also produces inert pellets as a co-product.

JDCPhosphate this week reported that its IHP demonstration plant at Fort Meade, had successfully started phosphate agglomerate feed to its kiln, with the expectation that SPA production would start in the near term.

MD Cliff Lawrenson said this week that the company was now undertaking a feasibility study (FS) on the Wonarah project, incorporating the IHP process, which was due during the second half of 2014.

Lawrenson said that the IHP process allowed Minemakers to consider smaller modular units, while still allowing the project to be cost-effective.

“It is great to have a technology that is modular, as you can improve the economies of scale and your subsequent roll-outs, and you can improve the operating capability of the plant, and penetrate the market over time.”

All the relevant approvals, including environmental approvals, were already in place for the Wonarah project, and Lawrenson said that plant commissioning was expected in late 2015, or early 2016.

The project currently has a measured and indicated resource of some 300-million tonnes, at 18.2% phosphate, and an inferred resource of 542-million tonnes, at 18% phosphate.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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