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Australia

Kathleen Valley Project

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Australia

Kathleen Valley Project

Location: 672 km NE from Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Project Contacts:

Level 2, 1292 Hay Street
PO Box 284
West Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6001

Contacts:

Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors

Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StageConstruction
Commodities
  • Spodumene
  • Tantalum
  • Lithium
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Transverse open stoping
  • Room-and-pillar
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Production Start... Lock
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SnapshotThe Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is a Tier-1 battery metals asset with excellent grade and scale in one of world’s best mining districts.

Following extensive preliminary works, which were completed by the end of 2022, open pit mining at Mt Mann and Kathleen’s Corner pits commenced in January 2023, with ore being mined from surface. Ore is being stockpiled for processing through the processing plant when it comes online in 2024 delivering upgraded six percent spodumene concentrate to three foundation Tier-1 customers as contracted.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Liontown Resources Ltd. 100 % Indirect
The 100%-owned Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is located on four granted Mining Licences and one Mining Licence application. The MLs have been transferred to LRL (Aust) Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liontown Resources Ltd.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Pegmatite

Summary:

The Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is located on the western edge of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt within the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. The belt consists of mafic and ultramafic volcanics with considerable volumes of clastic sediments, minor felsic volcanics and differentiate gabbros. The greenstones in the Kathleen Valley area have been metamorphosed to upper greenschist-lower amphibolite facies metamorphic grades and include tholeiitic lavas, differentiated gabbroic sills and ultramafic chlorite schists.

Lithium mineralisation is hosted within spodumene-bearing pegmatites, which are part of a series of lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT)-type rare metal pegmatites that intrude mafic and sedimentary rocks in the region.

Twenty mineralised pegmatites have been identified at the Kathleen Valley Project hosted by two, outcropping, NW/SE trending pegmatite swarms – a shallowly-dipping, north-eastern swarm (Kathleen’s Corner), which contains approximately 90% of the pegmatites, and a steeper dipping south-western swarm (Mt Mann). The two swarms are interpreted to merge at depth to form a single, thick, moderately dipping mineralised body which remains open down-dip and along strike.

Most of the lithium is contained within spodumene. Small, isolated zones of petalite mineralisation have been observed in the north-western part of the deposit (this material equates to <0.5% of the resource samples).

The mineralisation is contained within pegmatite veins that are readily distinguished from the surrounding rocks. Sectional interpretation and wireframing indicates good continuity of the interpreted pegmatite veins both on-section and between sections. The confidence in the grade and geological continuity is reflected by the assigned resource classification.

Twenty lithium mineralised pegmatites have been identified at the Kathleen Valley Project which extend from surface to a depth of 640 m.

At Mt Mann, two steeply-dipping (-70° west) pegmatites have been drilled over a strike length of 1,200 m and to a vertical depth of around 300 m to 400 m. The two pegmatites are up to 35 m thick and have average thicknesses of 9 m and 11 m.

At Kathleen’s Corner, 18 sub-horizontal pegmatites have been drilled over an area of 1,800 m by 1,300 m. These pegmatites outcrop in the northeast and are up to 40 m thick with an average thickness of 8 m. The pegmatites coalesce and merge with the Mt Mann pegmatites at approximately 300 m to 400 m below surface to form a single, thick (35 m to 75 m) mineralised body that extends for a further 600 m to 700 m down-dip.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. Annual
Spodumene kt 608
Tantalum kt 0.5
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate.

Operational metrics

Metrics
Annual ore mining rate  ....  Subscribe
Plant annual capacity  ....  Subscribe
Waste tonnes, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Total tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2021 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
Credits (by-product) Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
Cash costs Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
Total cash costs Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Tantalum USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2021 study / presentation.
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

Currency2021
OP mining costs ($/t milled) AUD 28 *  
UG mining costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
Combined mining costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2021 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
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Expansion CapEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
UG OpEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Total OpEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Income Taxes $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Royalty payments $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 8% $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

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