• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Australia
Mt Cattlin Mine

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
2 km N from Ravensthorpe, Western Australia, Australia

  Address:
Mt Cattlin, Lake King
Ravensthorpe
Western Australia, Australia
6346
Phone  ...  Subscription required
Fax+61-8-9839-0399
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Australia
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Lithium
  • Spodumene
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Gravity separation
  • Shaker table
  • Vacuum filtration
  • Dewatering
  • Dense media separation
  • Magnetic separation
Mine Life3.83 years (as of Jan 1, 2021)
Latest NewsMerger of Galaxy and Orocobre Implemented     August 25, 2021


Owners

Source:
CompanyInterestOwnership
Allkem Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Galaxy Lithium Australia Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Galaxy Resources Ltd (Galaxy) owns 100% of the Mt Cattlin property.

On August 25, 2021, Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY) (Galaxy, the Company) is pleased to advise that the scheme of arrangement in relation to the merger of Galaxy and Orocobre Limited (ASX:ORE, TSX:ORL) (Orocobre), (Scheme) has been implemented.
In accordance with the terms of the Scheme, all of the shares in Galaxy (Galaxy Shares) have now been transferred to Orocobre and eligible Galaxy shareholders have been issued the Scheme consideration of 0.569 new fully paid ordinary shares in Orocobre (Orocobre Shares) for each Galaxy Share held at the Scheme record date (being 5.00 pm (Perth time) on Wednesday, 18 August 2021). The newly issued Orocobre Shares will commence trading on ASX on a normal settlement basis from Thursday, 26 August 2021.

Deposit Type

  • Pegmatite
  • Volcanic hosted


Summary:

The Mt. Cattlin Project lies within the Ravensthorpe Terrane, with host rocks comprising both the Annabelle Volcanics to the west, and the Manyutup Tonalite to the east. The contact between these rock types extends through the Project area.

The Annabelle Volcanics at Mt. Cattlin consist of intermediate to mafic volcanic rocks, comprising both pyroclastic material and lavas.

Both the Annabelle Volcanics and the Manyutup Tonalite are intruded by numerous fine to coarse-grained metamorphosed dolerite dykes. A NNW trending gabbro (termed pyroxenite in earlier reports) occurs at the eastern edge of the Mt. Cattlin pegmatite ore body.

The pegmatites which comprise the ore body occur as a series of sub-horizontal dykes, hosted by both volcanic and intrusive rocks. Several dolerite or quartz gabbro dykes trending roughly ENE and north-south cut all lithologies including the pegmatite dykes and are believed to be Proterozoic in age.

Mineralisation.
Lithium and tantalum mineralisation occurs in pegmatites, which have intruded both the Annabelle Volcanics and the Manyutup Tonalite, close to the contact between these two sequences.

The pegmatite dykes occur as a series of sub horizontal to gently-dipping horizons. In places they occur as stacked horizons which overlap in section. Pegmatite mineralisation defined to date covers an area of around 1.6 km east-west and 1 km north-south. The main pegmatite units drilled to date generally lie between 30 m and 60 m below the surface, and outcrop in some locations. However, deeper zones of lithium-mineralised pegmatites occur over 140 m below the surface to the northwest of the main ore body and may have potential to be mined from underground.

The pegmatites have a diverse mineralogy with major minerals comprising quartz, albite, cleavelandite (platy albite), microcline, perthite, spodumene, muscovite and lepidolite. Minor minerals include tourmaline, schorlite, elbaite, beryl, microlite, columbite-tantalite, sphalerite, amblygonite-montebrasite, triphylite, apatite, spessartite and fluorite. Spodumene is the predominant lithium ore mineral, and several types of spodumene are recognised, including light green and white varieties. Tantalum occurs as the manganese-rich end members of the columbite-tantalite series including Ta-rich manganotantalite, and as microlite.

The lithium minerals within the pegmatites are shown below:
- Spodumene LiAl(SiO3)2 contains 4 to 8 % lithium oxide (lithia).
- Amblygonite, LiAl(F,OH)PO4, contains 8 to 10 % lithia.
- Lepidolite, (lithium mica) contains 2 to 4 % lithia.
- Cookeite, (lithium chlorite).

The mineralogy of the pegmatites varies laterally, and can also be crudely zoned in a sub-vertical manner (perpendicular to margins), with zones differentiated by mineralogy and grain size.

Part of the northeast of the deposit contains the lithium-bearing mica lepidolite, which does not occur in the rest of the deposit. The lepidolite-rich zones contain higher tantalum (mainly microlite) grades. Zones include an aplitic rock comprising mainly quartzalbite- muscovite near contacts with country rocks, and zones of predominantly light green, and predominantly white spodumene. Lepidolite is generally associated with the white spodumene. Quartz-tourmaline veins are associated with the pegmatites and occur in places in the country rocks up to 10s of metres away from the pegmatites.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader


Summary:

The Mt Cattlin mine currently operates using a conventional open pit mining method to deliver ore to the processing plant from a series of open pits adjacent to the plant facility. The mining method is industry standard involving drilling and blasting of all material before loading and hauling using backhoe excavators and rear dump rigid trucks. The ore and waste rock is drilled and blasted with 10 m high benches, and mined on 2 m to 2.5 m flitches.

The ore is delivered to a conventional crushing and dense medium separation (DMS) circuit. During mining operations, a portion of the mined ore is diluted with basalt which is considered a contaminant. The processing plant includes a separate circuit during crushing and screening that utilises optical sorters to remove basalt material from the process stream.

Earthmoving operations use a mining contractor to conduct all drilling, blasting, load, haul and ancillary work for the open-cut mining operation. The planned pit designs, which encompass the remaining mineral reserves, include two discrete open pits comprising the Northeast (NE) Pit and the Northwest (NW) Pit. The original main Dowling Pit, as well as the Southwest (SW) Pit and Southeast (SE) Pit have been mined out and are used for waste backfill. The SW Pit incorporates in-pit tailings disposal.

The current mining strategy will be to mine the NE Pit in two stages and NW Pit in three stages in order to defer the waste stripping requirements and maintain continuous ore delivery to the processing plant. In early 2021 the initial mining of part one of NE Pit was well advanced and delivering ore while mining of the pre-strip waste in part two progresses. Ore delivery from part two of the NE Pit is planned for Q1 2022 when ore is being exhausted in part one of the NE Pit.

Mining of the NW Pit is planned to start in mid-2021 with part one planned to reach the ore by Q2 2022 as the ore is depleted from NE Pit. This approach of staged mining is planned to continue into parts two and three of the NW Pit, a strategy that will provide a continuous supply of ore as mining operations shift between the two pit locations.


Crushing and Grinding
Flow Sheet: Source
Crusher / Mill TypeModelSizePowerQuantity
Jaw crusher 1
Cone crusher 1
Vertical shaft impact crusher (VSI) 1

Summary:

Crushing and Wet Plant Feed Preparation
Ore from the mine is stockpiled on the Run of Mine (ROM) stockpile. Ore is reclaimed from the ROM stockpile by Front End Loader and fed into the ROM Bin, from where it passes over a grizzly feeder into a single toggle jaw crusher. Material more than 125 mm passes into the crusher where it is broken down to progress to the secondary cone crusher. Any material smaller in size to fit through the grizzly is passed around the jaw directly onto a triple-deck sizing screen with respective deck layer apertures at 50 mm, 22 mm and 14 mm. The +50 mm particles feed the secondary cone crusher, -50 to +14 mm meets the secondary crusher discharge, -14 mm reports to Fine Ore Stockpile (FOS) or the Fine Ore Bin (FOB).

When feeding contaminated ore, material which comes from the secondary cone and the first sizing screen combine and are directed towards two parallel triple-deck sizing screens that feed the optical sorters and tertiary crushers.

The secondary screening, tertiary crushers and optical sorters are arranged to sit back-to-back in a mirroring arrangement so that the feed makes its way down the centre of the network and is recirculated back up the outside of the network. The two individual triple-deck sizing screens, which are set up with 40 mm, 22 mm, and 14 mm apertures respectively, separate the feed to the optical sorters to achieve the required size distribution for optimum contaminant rejection. The +40 mm reports to the Optical Sorters where contaminant basalt is removed. The +40 mm optical sorter product and the -40 +14 mm progress to the tertiary crusher, -14 mm reports to the FOS. The tertiary crusher product is recirculated to the secondary screening feed conveyor creating a closed loop with a -15 mm exit path. Once the crushed ore meets this size, it reports to the FOS at -15 mm. Material that has made its way to the FOS is either stockpiled for reclamation, or directly fed into the FOB.


Processing

  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Gravity separation
  • Shaker table
  • Vacuum filtration
  • Dewatering
  • Dense media separation
  • Magnetic separation

Flow Sheet: Subscription required

Summary:

Beginning in 2019, several additional improvements were made to the flowsheet as part of the Yield Optimisation Project (YOP), designed to improve yield and increase throughput of ROM ore to 1.8 million tonnes per annum. These changes included:
- Further optimisation of size fractions for Wet Plant feed and feed to the DMS Plant;
- Reliberation circuit for the Secondary DMS rejects to recover spodumene composited with gangue material;
- Replacement of the Vacuum Belt Filter with Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation and an Ultrafine DMS circuit for recovery of spodumene from the Wet Screen undersize;
- Introduction of a Product Quality Upgrade (PQU) circuit containing a Wet Belt Magnetic Separator and an Optical Sorter for removal of basalt to improve product grade.

In early 2019, two in-series optical sorters were introduced in the crushing circuit to utilise ongoing and previous material classed as contaminated and not suitable for plant feed. The sort ........

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2020201920182017
Spodumene Recovery Rate, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required5056
Spodumene Head Grade, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1.081.2
Spodumene Concentrate Grade, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required5.765.69

Production:

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Spodumene kt  ......  Subscription required ^  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required157156
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate. ^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics20212020201920182017
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1,790,049 wmt1,777,720 wmt1,321,715 wmt
Tonnes processed  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1,695,369 wmt1,703,503 wmt1,371,365 wmt
Total tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required4,625,344 bcm3,458,010 bcm2,052,813 bcm
Annual processing capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1.8 Mt1.8 Mt1.6 Mt
Waste  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1,576,170 bcm
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at March 31, 2021:
The Mineral Reserves have been reported at a cut-off of 0.4% Li2O
The Mineral Resources have been reported at a cut-off of 0.4% Li2O.

CategoryOreTypeTonnage CommodityGradeContained 
Commodity
Proven In-Situ (OP) 0.3 Mt Li2O 1.36 % 4.1 kt
Proven In-Situ (OP) 0.3 Mt Ta2O5 198 ppm 131,000 lbs
Probable Stockpiles 3 Mt Li2O 0.8 % 24 kt
Probable In-Situ (OP) 4.7 Mt Li2O 1.19 % 55.9 kt
Probable Stockpiles 3 Mt Ta2O5 122 ppm 807,000 lbs
Probable In-Situ (OP) 4.7 Mt Ta2O5 146 ppm 1,512,000 lbs
Proven & Probable Total 8 Mt Li2O 1.04 % 84 kt
Proven & Probable Total 8 Mt Ta2O5 139 ppm 2,449,000 lbs
Measured In-Situ (OP) 0.3 Mt Li2O 1.6 % 4.8 kt
Measured In-Situ (OP) 0.3 Mt Ta2O5 236 ppm 156,000 lbs
Indicated Stockpiles 3 Mt Li2O 0.8 % 24 kt
Indicated In-Situ (OP) 4.8 Mt Li2O 1.39 % 66.7 kt
Indicated Stockpiles 3 Mt Ta2O5 122 ppm 807,000 lbs
Indicated In-Situ (OP) 4.8 Mt Ta2O5 170 ppm 1,798,000 lbs
Inferred In-Situ (OP) 2.9 Mt Li2O 1.25 % 36.3 kt
Inferred In-Situ (OP) 2.9 Mt Ta2O5 143 ppm 913,000 lbs
Total Resource Total 11 Mt Li2O 1.2 % 131.8 kt
Total Resource Total 11 Mt Ta2O5 151 ppm 3,674,000 lbs

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Cash costs Spodumene USD  ......  Subscription required ^  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required 451 / dmt 346 / dmt
Cash costs (sold) Spodumene USD  ......  Subscription required 411 / dmt
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Financials:

Units2020201920182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required32.8  
Revenue M  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required153.9  USD 126  AUD
Pre-tax Income M  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required26.1  USD 33  AUD
EBITDA M  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required70.5  USD
Subscription required - Subscription is required


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of March 1, 2021:
HME TypeModelSizeQuantityLeased or
Contractor
Dozer ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Dozer ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Drill ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Drill ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Excavator 120 t ....................... Subscription required Leased
Excavator 200 t ....................... Subscription required Leased
Grader ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Loader (FEL) ....................... Subscription required Leased
Truck (dump) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Leased
Truck (water) ....................... Subscription required Leased
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 28, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 31, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 31, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 28, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 28, 2021
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Report 2018
Other 2018
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2018
Annual Report 2017
Annual Report 2016
Annual Report 2015
Annual Report 2014
Technical Report 2011
Press Release 2009
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

News:

NewsDate
Merger of Galaxy and Orocobre Implemented August 25, 2021
Galaxy, Orocobre propose $4bn merger April 19, 2021
Galaxy Resources Limited Announcement March 17, 2021
Galaxy ramps up to full rate as lithium demand rebounds March 17, 2021
Galaxy targets ‘value over volume’ at Mt Cattlin November 19, 2019

Aerial view:

Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2017-2022 MDO Data Online Inc.