Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Bald Hill Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusCare and Maintenance
Commodities
  • Lithium
  • Spodumene
  • Tantalum
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
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SnapshotBald Hill has been shuttered since 2019 when owner Alita Resources went into administration during a lithium price plunge.

Alita Resources was delisted from the ASX, but a China- connected company bought the debt and has been selling spodumene from Bald Hill – allegedly on the cheap – to Chinese buyers since mining recommenced in February 2022. The lithium mine operates at a loss under these arrangements, with profits transferred overseas via an offtake agreement with a Hong Kong-registered entity, Yihe Cleantech Material Limited. It has been alleged that this offtake agreement has also led to an under-payment of state royalties.

MinRes finalised the acquisition of the Bald Hill mine and assumed control on 1 November 2023.

Following a strategic review and in light of a prolonged period of low spodumene concentrate prices, Bald Hill will be safely transitioned into care and maintenance.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Mineral Resources Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Mineral Resources Ltd. (MinRes) finalised the acquisition of the Bald Hill mine and assumed control on 1 November 2023.

MinRes holds a 100% interest in Bald Hill mine through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bald Hill Lithium Pty Ltd.

Deposit type

  • Pegmatite

Summary:

The Bald Hill area is underlain by generally north-striking, steeply dipping Archaean metasediments (schists and greywackes) and granitoids.

Felsic porphyries and pegmatite sheets and veins have intruded the Archaean rocks. Generally, the pegmatites crosscut the regional foliation, occurring as gently dipping sheets and as steeply dipping veins.

The pegmatites vary in width and are generally comprised quartz-albite-muscovite-spodumene in varying amounts. Late-stage albitisation in the central part of the main outcrop area has resulted in fine- grained, banded, sugary pegmatites with visible fine-grained, disseminated tantalite. A thin hornfels characterised by needle hornblende crystals is often observed in adjacent country rocks to the pegmatite intrusives. Tantalite generally occurs as fine disseminated crystals commonly associated with fine-grained albite zones, or as coarse crystals associated with cleavelandite.

Weathering of the pegmatites yields secondary mineralised accumulations in alluvial/eluvial deposits.

The Bald Hill Mineral Resource comprises one large, main, sub-horizontal pegmatite body, striking north-south, with a strike length of 1,070m, and a width at its widest point of 775m. This main body is surrounded by several smaller discrete pegmaOte bodies, sub-parallel to the main, which result in a total strike length for the whole resource of 1,245m, and a total width of 990m. The Mineral Resource has a total vertical depth of 195m, beginning 20m below the natural surface and plunging gently to the south along its entire strike length.

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

CommodityUnits2024
Spodumene kt  ....  Subscribe
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate.

Operational metrics

Metrics20242018
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Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe
Waste  ....  Subscribe
Annual processing rate  ....  Subscribe1.2 Mt

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Financials

Units2024
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Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

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Aerial view:

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