Production achieved following commissioning of the DMS processing plant at Bougouni
Kodal Minerals, the mineral exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that first spodumene concentrate has been produced at its flagship, fully-funded Bougouni Lithium Project in Southern Mali (“Bougouni” or the “Project”) and provides an update on progress of the Project.
First production of spodumene concentrate was achieved during the commissioning phase of the full Stage 1 Dense Media Separation (“DMS”) processing plant with the introduction of pegmatite ore into the processing circuit. The DMS processing plant performance has achieved target on this initial run with assay of spodumene concentrate at 5.53% Li2O produced, in line with the planned production profile. This initial spodumene concentrate production was achieved ahead of schedule and paves the way for the ramp up of the DMS processing plant to nameplate capacity in the coming weeks.
Highlights:
- Initial spodumene concentrate production has successfully been achieved during the commissioning of the DMS processing plant and the concentrate grade of 5.53% Li2O is extremely encouraging at this early stage of the ramp up.
- The commissioning of the DMS processing plant has proceeded through various stages, with water commissioning completed followed by the introduction of pegmatite ore to the plant.
- Commissioning continues with the review of the processing circuits, including balancing of the pegmatite ore feed input and the density loading of the DMS units.
- Construction costs remain within the US$65 million capital development budget, with only minor optimisation works remaining.
- Open pit mining activities at the Ngoualana deposit continue to build the run of mine (“ROM”) stockpile, with over 350,000 tonnes of ore with average grade of 1.17% Li2O ready for processing.
- The mining and processing operation at Bougouni has now commenced 24/7 operations.
- Further to the announcement of 1 November 2024 the mining licence transfer has been lodged and accepted by the Mali Mines Department (the “DNGM”) and the final stages of compliance are near completion; and the issue of the new mining decree is pending final signature from the President of Mali.
Bernard Aylward, CEO of Kodal Minerals, remarked: “The first production of spodumene concentrate at Bougouni marks a major milestone for Kodal and I would like to thank our entire team for this achievement, which wholly reflects the dedication and effort of all those involved. We are confident that this progress will continue into the commercial production phase and our project team will continue to work towards our 10,000 tonnes per month target at Bougouni.
“The operational focus over the coming weeks will be the finalisation of commissioning and stress testing of the DMS processing plant as we ramp up to achieve nameplate capacity and steady state production. We look forward to confirming our first shipment of lithium spodumene concentrate to Hainan in China by the end of this quarter.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Construction and Commissioning
Processing plant and services construction is now complete with only minor optimisation works remaining, which does not impact operations. Following the full pre-commissioning of the DMS processing plant drives and processing circuits, water was introduced to the DMS processing plant, and several short runs of the processing circuit were completed. During this time a full inspection of the DMS processing plant’s performance was undertaken, and minor deficiencies repaired and optimised as required in readiness for the introduction of ore.
During the water commissioning phase, hands-on training of the DMS processing plant operations team was conducted and all process control loops optimised. Ore was then introduced for a short period of two hours to observe the DMS processing plant’s performance in relation to the handling of ore. On the first run, the DMS processing plant performed very well with only a minor number of improvements required to reduce small amounts of spillage at transition points and further optimise control loops.
The DMS processing plant’s operations team commenced continuous shift rosters, and the plant was then successfully run at 50% tonnage throughput, continuing to ramp up to the 100% design rates for some periods. The team will continue to optimise the process in order to continuously achieve nameplate capacity throughput.
Mining
Mining activities have continued to progress smoothly and are running continuously with day and night shifts deployed. The building of the ore stockpile has continued with over 350,000 tonnes of ore grading on average 1.17% Li2O at the ROM. This represents approximately three months of ore processing and provides the advantage that production ramp up will not be hampered by insufficient mined ore.
Production
The first lithium spodumene product milestone was achieved, and onsite laboratory testing has confirmed a 5.53% Li2O spodumene concentrate grade from the first run, which is line with Kodal’s target for the operation. With further optimisation planned over the coming weeks, Kodal expects to achieve steady state production and confirm arrangements for its first shipment of product to China by the end of March 2025.