New approval strengthens Image plans for Atlas sands

Image Resources is continuing its push towards the construction of its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin after sealing State Government approval for its mining proposal.

The approval from the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) is another step forward along the development path for the project located 170km north of Perth.

The mining proposal approval comes after Image secured Ministerial approval in May under the Environmental Protection Act for the proposed development of the project. The company also last month launched the project’s initial on-ground construction activity.

Image is also expecting final Federal Government approval imminently after providing a response to proposed conditions relating to the Atlas development under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Management says its only remaining approval hurdles include the groundwater operating strategy, an offset environmental management plan and the Banksia Woodlands rehabilitation environmental management plan. Approval of the groundwater operating strategy is required for the company to be able to get a water abstraction licence.

The three approvals are expected soon, meaning Image should be able to kick off its on-site construction at the Atlas site in this year’s third quarter.

Image Resources managing director and chief executive officer Patrick Mutz said: “Scheduling of contractor mobilisation to Atlas is progressing in anticipation of receipt of the final permits in August and the start of project construction. Early works camp construction is well underway and deconstruction of the Boonanarring wet concentration plant has begun. The next six months are slated to see a flurry of construction activities, with a stretch goal of commencing project commissioning at the end of December.”

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. The HM assemblage includes 11.9 per cent zircon and 7.9 per cent rutile and occurs at shallow depths with a strip ratio of about 1:1.

The principal components of HM sands are rutile (titanium dioxide), ilmenite (an iron-titanium oxide) and zircon (a zirconium silicate). All HM concentrate (HMC) will be sold under the existing offtake agreements used at the company’s Boonanarring operation, with letters of credit to support each bulk shipment prior to loading.

Under the company’s 2017 operating plan, all ore reserves at Boonanarring were to be mined and processed before it self-funded the relocation of mining and processing equipment to the Atlas operation, where it would continue mining. And the operating plan remains active.

With the exception of permitting delays for Atlas, management says the plan continues to run broadly in line with its original schedule of five years of operation at Boonanarring to be followed by three years at Atlas. Boonanarring was commissioned at the end of 2018 and the processing of its final ore reserves wound up in the third quarter of last year.

The company says it is fully prepared, including funding from cash reserves, to relocate mining and processing equipment to Atlas as soon as all secondary approvals are in hand.

Image has four other proposed project developments in various stages of evaluation from concept studies to feasibility studies and is also looking at establishing a mineral separation plant (MSP) at Boonanarring to take advantage of existing infrastructure.

The company is also exploring the establishment of a synthetic rutile plant, proposed to be co-located with its MSP at Boonanarring, so it has plenty on its plate as it moves steadily towards running multiple operations simultaneously to produce multiple products marketed globally.

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