Neometals Ltd’s (ASX: NMT) Chinese partner, IMUMR, has kicked off a pilot scale test work programme on Barrambie gravity concentrates from Western Australia.
The start-up of the programme follows confirmation test-work undertaken in China on Neometals’ breakthrough reductive roasting and magnetic separation flowsheet.
IMUMR will manage and fund the trials at pilot scale to prove a simple gravity concentrate can be roasted and separated into two high-quality saleable products. It is a significant step forward in realising Neometals’ goal to develop Barrambie as a capital-light concentrate operation initially and retaining the optionality to value add through downstream processing in the future.
The pilot trials are expected to be complete in the June quarter 2021 and product evaluation results from potential offtakers in the September quarter of 2021.
In parallel Neometals will advance early contractor engagement dialogues in relation to a ‘build- own-operate-transfer’ arrangement for a mining and gravity concentration operation at Barrambie for export to end-users.
Barrambie is the most advanced, undeveloped hard-rock titanium Mineral Resource in Australia, located adjacent to existing transport infrastructure giving access to open user port facilities.
The project has a granted Mining Proposal for a 1.2 Mtpa mining operation and Ministerial Approval for construction of a processing plant with a throughput of 3.2Mtpa.
