With the investment, the Australia-based lithium producer aims to increase the project’s production capacity from 680,000tpa to 1,000,000tpa of spodumene concentrate
Pilbara Minerals to move ahead with the P1000 project at the Pilgangoora lithium mine. (Credit: Pilbara Minerals)
Pilbara Minerals has taken a final investment decision (FID) on the A$560m ($374m) P1000 project at its fully-owned Pilgangoora lithium mine in Western Australia.
With the investment, the Australia-based lithium producer aims to increase the project’s production capacity by nearly 47% from 680,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 1,000,000tpa of spodumene concentrate.
The P1000 project will be executed initially in parallel with the ongoing P680 project, which was announced in June 2022.
According to Pilbara Minerals, P1000 calls for an expanded concentrator with increased throughput at the Pilgan plant as well as a range of supporting site infrastructure. Besides, it involves an expansion of the Tambrah Camp.
On the other hand, the P680 project is expected to add an additional 100,000tpa to the Pilgangoora lithium project’s current production capacity of 580,000tpa.
Pilbara Minerals managing director and CEO Dale Henderson said: “The P1000 Project expansion is an important milestone for Pilbara Minerals. This expansion step facilitates a major lift in production capacity, capitalising on the substantial scale of this Tier-1 hard rock asset which underpins a 25 year mine life at this new expanded production level.
“This reinforces the exceptional scale and quality of our Pilgangoora Project, which is one of the few hard rock lithium production operations globally that has both the resource size and an existing operating platform to enable a rapid scale-up of production to capitalise on the growing demand for lithium products.”
Pilbara Mineral stated that as part of the A$38m ($25.4m) in pre-FID expenditure announced in December 2022, key long-lead procurement has already started at the expansion project.
The P1000 project is expected to produce the first ore in the March quarter of 2025.
Full production is anticipated at the expanded project following commissioning and ramp-up at the end of the September quarter of 2025.
Located 120km from Port Hedland, the Pilgangoora lithium project has two processing plants namely, the Pilgan plant and the Ngungaju plant.