Image gets nod to launch into onsite Atlas construction

Image Resources has confirmed it has received the final approvals it needs to kick off the long-awaited onsite construction of its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s Perth Basin, 170km north of the State’s capital city.

The company says it has now secured the vital go-ahead from the Federal Government after it satisfied proposed conditions relating to the Atlas development under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Additionally, Image says it also received an approval yesterday from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for its Banksia Woodlands rehabilitation environmental management plan. The only outstanding approval now relates to the company’s groundwater operating strategy (GOS), which is necessary for it to be able to obtain a water abstraction licence.

But management says that requirement is not a roadblock to launching the onsite construction of its processing plant and related infrastructure, nor to the removal of mine topsoil and overburden above the water table. The company expects to be granted the GOS approval in the coming weeks.

Image Resources managing director and chief executive officer Patrick Mutz said: “Receipt of these penultimate approvals for Atlas from the Commonwealth and EPA serve as the trigger for mobilisation of contractors and equipment to Atlas starting the week of 12 August. Early construction works on the Atlas mining camp is more than 50% complete and deconstruction of the relevant sections of the Boonanarring wet concentration plant for relocation to Atlas is well underway.”

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), with 96 per cent of contained HM in the proven ore reserves category. Despite some permitting delays, management says this stage of its development pipeline is running broadly in line with its original schedule that envisaged five years of operation at Boonanarring, to be followed by three years at Atlas.

Boonanarring was commissioned at the end of 2018 and processing of its final ore reserves was wound up in the third quarter of last year.

Image has said previously it is fully prepared, including funding from cash reserves, to relocate mining and processing equipment from Boonanarring to Atlas as soon as all secondary approvals are in hand. Now, with the latest approvals firing the starting gun, the company is off to the races with the construction and translocation of plant and other infrastructure to its new home at the Atlas site.

Once Atlas is up and running, Image can look to further advance at least four of its other proposed project developments that are in various stages of evaluation from concept studies to feasibility studies. It will also consider other process-related studies related to the possible establishment of a mineral separation plant (MSP) at Boonanarring to take advantage of existing infrastructure and a synthetic rutile plant, proposed to be co-located with its MSP at Boonanarring.

It is often said that nothing succeeds like persistence and the imminent launch of Atlas is strong testimony to that.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au