Bill Beament-led Develop Global has secured a second underground hard-rock mining contract with a A$46 million (US$30 million) deal to establish an exploration decline at Mineral Resources’ Mount Marion openpit lithium mine near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
MinRes operates the mine owned 50-50 in a joint venture with China’s Ganfeng Lithium Co. It is spending A$120 million to increase processing plant capacity to 900,000 tonnes per annum and is looking to bolster long-term site and external sources of feed for the plant.
MinRes is also reportedly assessing the possibility of building a lithium hydroxide plant at Kalgoorlie to process spodumene from Mount Marion and other sources. It currently exports spodumene concentrate via the port at Esperance about 350km to the south.
Develop, also an explorer and developer in its own right, has the Pioneer Dome lithium project about 100km south of Mount Marion in the so-called “lithium corridor” south of Kambalda and Kalgoorlie.
The company says its 18-month Mount Marion contract will start early in 2024.
Key works include surface facilities to support underground mining, portal establishment and installation of underground mine infrastructure.
Develop will establish underground exploration drill platforms and tunnel through the orebody so far defined by MinRes to “obtain important geological and operational data for future mining activities [and] set up the underground for an extensive diamond drilling campaign to grow the maiden underground resource of 9.5 million tonnes at 1.52% Li2O”.
Develop managing director Bill Beament, the former head of ASX mid-tier gold miner Northern Star Resources, said the Mount Marion contract was a “significant vote of confidence in our world-class underground mining team”.
“The strength of this team is shown by the outstanding results we are generating at the Bellevue gold mine, where the project is running on time and on budget,” he said.
“The Mount Marion contract is consistent with our stated strategy of securing two to three contracts within our mining services division.”
ASX-listed Develop’s share price is down about 6% in the past month, capitalising the company at circa-A$740 million.
