African lithium developer, Prospect Resources Ltd has announced a number of key developments at its Arcadia lithium project after a detailed strategic review by management and a number of external third-party experts on the pathway to nearterm production. This strategic review has concluded that an initial smaller commercial scale production facility at Arcadia utilising the existing Feasibility Study dense media separation (DMS) flowsheet will allow greater speed to market, higher technical certainty, significantly lower risk, and a reduced capital and
operating-cost operation, when compared to inclusion of petalite flotation (in place of DMS) to increase the recovery of petalite from the ore body.
It was assessed that the potential increase in petalite recovery was insufficient justification to compensate for the higher technology risk for start up operations. In line with the staged development plan, the Company has agreed to appoint an independent lithium focused engineering firm to undertake the revised feasibility study, which will include a Front-End Engineering and Design to improve technical certainty and reduce execution risk
in providing greater accuracy on equipment selection, sizing and resulting project economics.
Read: KBC Provides Holistic Onboarding Solutions for the Mining Industry
DMS flow sheet
This decision has also resulted in changes to the pilot plant design which will use the DMS flow sheet
to deliver petalite product samples for glass ceramic customer qualification with greater speed and
certainty than the alternative flotation flow sheet. The pilot plant remains an asset with tremendous
technical benefit operating in conjunction with commercial production.
On the corporate front, the Company and Farvic Consolidated Mines Pvt Ltd have agreed to extend the final date for completion of the sale and purchase of Farvic’s interest in the Arcadia project to 31 December 2021. The agreement increases Prospect’s ownership in the Arcadia Lithium Mine from 70% to 87%, maximising Prospect’s exposure to the economic potential of Arcadia, simplify the corporate structure, and reinforces strength of support of our project level partners.
These strategic actions enabling the pathway to near November 2018 -term production have allowed the Company to advance discussions with existing offtake partners, strategic corporate and institutional financiers as well as early-stage discussions to consider a development joint venture with a large corporate
investor.
