Image flexes muscle to prepare new Atlas mineral sands play

Image Resources has launched the on-ground construction activity for its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin as management ramps up the operation’s proposed development.

The company confirmed today that it plans to soon start building a new accommodation camp at Atlas and will also dismantle and transfer the wet concentrator from its now-completed Boonanarring mining project. The upscaling of activities follows hard on the heels of Image securing State Government approval under the Environmental Protection Act for the proposed development.

The company’s future operating plan was outlined in its 2017 bankable feasibility study (BFS), which envisaged the mining and processing all of the ore reserves at Boonanarring before self-funding the relocation of all required equipment to Atlas to allow it to continue to mine.

Despite some permitting delays, its 2017 operating plan is still active and running in line with its original schedule, which contemplated five years of operation at Boonanarring to be followed by a further three years at Atlas. The Boonanarring project was commissioned in the final quarter of 2018, with final ore reserves processing done and dusted by last year’s third quarter.

Image Resources managing director and chief executive officer Patrick Mutz said: “We continue to advance pre-development activities for Atlas and it is gratifying to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel leading to the commencement of on-ground construction activities. We have an aggressive construction schedule with ambitions for first HMC production late in Q4 2024 or early Q1 2025, leading to first revenue in Q1 2025.”

The company says it is now fully prepared, including funding from cash reserves, for its planned relocation of mining and processing equipment to Atlas as soon as all secondary approvals are in hand. Atlas is a high-grade mineral sands deposit containing 5.5 million tonnes of ore reserves at 9.2 per cent total heavy minerals (THM) and with 96 per cent of contained heavy minerals (HM) in the proved ore reserves category.

The HM assemblage includes 11.9 per cent zircon and 7.9 per cent rutile. The mineralisation is generally shallow and has an overall strip ratio of about 1:1.

All heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) has been earmarked for sale under the existing offtake agreements used at Boonanarring, with letters of credit supporting each bulk shipment prior to loading.

Management says it remains fully committed to the project, with its confidence buoyed by the project’s positive economics, its significant time and capital expenditure to date on Atlas’ development, the absence of a superior project alternative in the same time-frame and its capacity to fund site construction from cash reserves.

The on-site civil engineering works, erection of processing equipment, mining box-cut and supporting infrastructure at Atlas are slated to begin in the third quarter of this year after it secures approvals for works, a water abstraction licence, a mining proposal and a management plan.

The accommodation camp is being constructed on Image-owned private land, under an approved development application with the local shire, while the relocation of the Boonanarring wet concentrate plant and associated equipment to Atlas is pencilled in for this month.

Image is working on developing its pipeline of projects to either come online concurrently or in parallel with Atlas, or to follow in a sequenced program. The company’s overarching concept envisages operating multiple mines simultaneously, producing several products marketed globally and investigating value-adding through the conversion of ilmenite to synthetic rutile.

The plan includes a standalone dredging project at Bidaminna where a prefeasibility study (PFS) is complete for an estimated 10-year mine life and a definitive feasibility study (DFS) is in progress. A PFS for the company’s proposed Yandanooka standalone dry mining project is also complete and contemplates an eight-year mine life, with a well-advanced BFS underway.

Management has concept studies ongoing for the McCalls and Mindarra Springs hydraulic or dredge mining projects, anticipating respective mine lives of more than 40 years. It has also kicked off a PFS looking at building a new mineral separation plant at Boonanarring and is pressing ahead with a concept study into establishing a co-located synthetic rutile production facility.

From standing still with its wheels spinning while waiting for approvals, Image has taken its hand off the brake lever and looks to be moving from the holding yards to flexing its mining muscle at Atlas.

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