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Australia

Wodgina Mine

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Australia

Wodgina Mine

Location: 53 km S from South Hedland, Western Australia, Australia

Address:

20 Walters Drive, Osborne Park
Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6017

Contacts:

Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors

Categories

Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Lithium
  • Spodumene
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Wodgina is one of the world’s largest known hard rock lithium deposits.

In 2023, MinRes received mining and environmental approvals to expand the Wodgina mine. Wodgina’s mine expansion commenced in Q4 FY23 through second and third stage mine developments.

In FY24, pre-stripping of Stage 2 and 3 at Wodgina continued.

The expansion will provide access to multiple mining areas, with additional ore enabling the existing spodumene concentrate plant – Trains 1, 2 and 3 – to operate at full capacity while providing scope to support potential additional trains in the future. Plant expansion studies are underway to identify options for increasing the project’s production, subject to market demand.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Mineral Resources Ltd. (operator) 50 % Indirect
Albemarle Corp. 50 % Indirect
In 2019, Albemarle Corporation completed the acquisition of a 60% interest in MRL’s Wodgina hard rock lithium mine project (“Wodgina Project”) and formed an unincorporated joint venture with MRL, named MARBL Lithium Joint Venture.

On October 18, 2023, Albemarle Corporation closed on the restructuring of the MARBL lithium joint venture in Australia (“MARBL”) with Mineral Resources Limited (“MRL”). Following this restructuring, Albemarle and MRL each own 50% of the Wodgina Lithium Mine Project (“Wodgina”), and MRL operates the Wodgina mine on behalf of the joint venture.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Pegmatite

Summary:

The Wodgina mine is a pegmatite lithium deposit with spodumene the dominant mineral. The lithium mineralization occurs as 10 - 30 cm long grey-white spodumene crystals within medium grained pegmatites comprising primarily of quartz, feldspar, spodumene, and muscovite. Typically, the spodumene crystals are oriented orthogonal to the pegmatite contacts.

The 3600-2800Ma North Pilbara basement terrane consists of a series of ovoid multiphase granitoid- gneiss domes bordered by sinuous synformal to monoclinal greenstone belts.

The Wodgina Greenstone Belt is a north to northeast plunging synclinal structure 25km long and 5km wide, preserved as a roof pendant separating the Yule and Carlindi granitoid complexes. It is composed principally of interlayered mafic and ultramafic schists and amphibolite, with subordinate komatiite, clastic sediments, BIF and chert. The komatiitic and metasedimentary units within the Wodgina area are tentatively correlated to the Kunagunarrina and Leilira Formations respectively.

Archean volcanic activity and sedimentation was followed by the intrusion of Archean granitic batholiths with consequent deformation and metamorphism of the sequence. Late-stage granitic intrusions resulted in the emplacement of simple and complex pegmatite sills and barren quartz veins.

The Wodgina pegmatite district contains a number of prospective pegmatite groups, including the Wodgina Deposit.

The Wodgina lithium mineralisation is hosted within a number of sub-parallel, sub-horizontal, northeast trending pegmatite intrusive bodies with a dip t between 5° to 30° to the west-southwest.

At this time individual pegmatites vary in strike length from approximately 200m to 400m. The thinner near surface pegmatites vary from 10m to 30m in thickness but vary locally from less than 2m to up to 35m thick. The massive basal pegmatite varies from 120m to 200m thick. The pegmatites intrude the mafic volcanic and metasedimentary host rocks of the surrounding greenstone belt.

The lithium in the Cassiterite Pit and shallower pegmatites occurs as 10 - 30cm long grey-white spodumene crystals within medium grained pegmatites comprising primarily of quartz, feldspar, spodumene and muscovite. Typically, the spodumene crystals are oriented orthogonal to the pegmatite contacts. Some zoning of the pegmatites parallel to the contacts is observed, with higher concentrations of spodumene occurring close to the upper contact. In the massive basal pegmatite, the spodumene is distributed within fine-grained quartz, feldspar, spodumene and muscovite matrix.

The Li2O area of the resource consists of three main areas of the Cassiterite deposit, respectively Upper Lenses, Vein Lenses and Basal Lenses.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity Production

Wodgina was on care and maintenance from FY20 to February FY22.
CommodityProductUnits20242023202220182017
Lithium Hydroxide kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Spodumene Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Lithium Ore kwmt 3,481720

Operational metrics

Metrics202420232022202020182017
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Annual production capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Annual production capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Annual mining capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe4 M wmt4 M wmt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits202420232022
Cash costs Spodumene AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total cash costs Spodumene AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Mine Financials

Units202420232022
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
EBITDA M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 24, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 24, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 25, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 25, 2024

Workforce

EmployeesTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2024
...... Subscription required 2022

Aerial view:

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