Image passes milestone with first Atlas mineral sands shipment

Image Resources has shipped its first heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) from its new Atlas project in the Dandaragan shire, 170 kilometres north of Perth, under an existing off-take agreement used for the company’s previous Boonanarring project.   

Image shipped a nominal 10,000 tonnes of wet HMC from the port of Geraldton last week, just two months after it commissioned its Atlas plant. 

The concentrate was sold under a continuing life-of-mine offtake agreement with Image’s long-standing offtake partner Shantou Natfort Zirconium and Titanium Co.  

The company used the same off-take arrangement for HMC sales from its previous Boonanarring operation. As is customary with its past shipments, Image’s latest sale was secured by a letter of credit issued before vessel loading. 

Image says about 25 per cent of the market value of the shipment was applied as a principal repayment under a US$10 million HMC off-take prepayment facility executed with Natfort in October last year.

Image Resources managing director and chief executive officer Patrick Mutz said: “The first sale of product from any new development project is always a milestone worthy of recognition. For the Atlas project, completing a first shipment just two months after commencement of commissioning is truly a notable accomplishment, particularly as this shipment marks Image’s return to revenue after a 16-month hiatus.” 

Mutz said the company would now focus on ramping up production to nameplate capacity to deliver on its market guidance for 2025.

Image’s market guidance this year is for production of 175,000 to 195,000 dry metric tonnes HMC, sales of 165,000 to 185,000 dry metric tonnes, a cost of $340-$400 per tonne of HMC produced, and a $410-$470 all-in sustaining cost per tonne of HMC.

The all-in sustaining cost measures the total cost of producing and shipping a tonne of HMC, including all sustaining costs, mining and processing costs. 

The Atlas wet concentration plant is the first to incorporate Mineral Technologies’ innovative CT1 spirals in its processing line.

Image says from a metallurgical point of view, the results of using the technology in the plant commissioning phase were in line with the project’s pilot test results.

The spirals achieved high heavy mineral recovery and produced high-quality HMC, which helped Image quickly build up its HMC inventory, leading to an early first shipment.

The company is now closely evaluating the CT1 technology over extended time intervals.

It says the spirals’ performance appears to be sensitive to tiny fibrous root matter in the Atlas feed. 

Mineral Technology’s engineering team is investigating the issue to quantify the effects of debris build-up on heavy mineral recovery.

Image hopes the studies will identify solutions to reduce or eliminate the problem on recovery and/or operating efficiencies.

Image finished building the Atlas project in January and began commissioning and achieved first HMC production in February. The company plans to ramp-up production and revenue from Atlas in the current quarter.

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