Kathleen Valley is located on the western edge of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt within the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. The belt consists dominantly of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks as well as considerable volumes of clastic sedimentary rocks, minor felsic volcanics and differentiated 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 pegmatite dykes.
The operation has a current Mineral Resource Estimate of 155Mt at 1.3% Li2O and 131ppm Ta2O5 (as of June 2024). Over 80 percent of the Mineral Resource is classified as Measured or Indicated. An Ore Reserve of 68.5Mt at 1.34% Li2O and 120ppm Ta2O5 (as of November 2021) supports an expected mine life of over 20 years.
Mining will predominately be underground, allowing direct access to higher grade mineralisation while minimising waste and the environmental footprint of the operation. Mined ore will be processed through a whole-of-ore flotation circuit which will provide an estimated recovery rate of 78 percent across the mine life and an estimated site recovery for tantalum concentrate of 42 percent.
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