ASX-listed WA manganese producer, Element 25 has sewn up a road transport deal with the Pilbara-based AK Evans Group that will see the bulk haulage and construction company truck manganese concentrate from Element 25’s new Butcherbird mine to Utah Point in Port Hedland for export.
The two parties have signed a letter of intent and are in the process of finalising a long-term commercial arrangement that will likely include the introduction of new quad road trains during the course of 2021.
Manganese concentrate from Butcherbird will be trucked from the mine site via an access road to the Great Northern Highway and then along the highway to the Utah Point export facility.
Element 25 Managing Director, Justin Brown said: “We are excited to be partnering with AK Evans with a view to having new dedicated road trains to transport our manganese to Port Hedland.”
It has been a busy week for Element 25.
Earlier this week the company announced it had entered into a port access agreement with the Pilbara Port Authority.
That contract allows Element 25 to export manganese concentrate from Port Hedland’s Utah Point bulk handling and loading facility.
The company is looking to ship out its maiden product next month.
Element 25 also confirmed the sale of the first parcel of manganese concentrate from Butcherbird to offtake partner OM Materials, a subsidiary of Singapore-based vertically integrated manganese and ferroalloy group OM Holdings Ltd.
The Butcherbird mining and beneficiation operation about 130km south of Newman in the southern Pilbara region has now progressed to 24-hour processing as part of the scheduled plant commissioning and ramp-up work.
According to Element 25’s second iteration of its pre-feasibility study on Butcherbird released late last year, the mine is forecast to generate pre-tax free cash flows averaging $39.6 million a year for the first five years of “stage one” manganese concentrate production levels up to 390,000 tonnes per annum.
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By Matt Birney
