To aid the construction of underground works at its flagship Kathleen Valley project, Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) has confirmed GR Engineering will build a cement plant on-site.
Namely, it will be a cemented paste fill plant – typically a mix of tailings, cement paste and water, used in the same way as cement to construct underground mining infrastructure.
GR Engineering will be responsible for both delivery of the plant and getting it online. Liontown expects 160m cubed per hour to be produced and has been designed to handle future expansion of Kathleen Valley.
The end-goal nameplate capacity Liontown is shooting for is an impressive 4Mtpa of lithium.
The presence of a cemented paste fill plant on-site is planned to minimise the size of surface-straddling tailings dams that would otherwise be needed. A certain amount of water used will be recycled on-site.
The paste plant will be comprised of two trains – a second train has been brought forward, Liontown said on Friday, to “derisk underground mining operations … and capture cost economies associated with constructing the two trains together.”
The contract is worth around $71M and was “contemplated” under a recently granted $550M facility.
“GRES has designed and constructed multiple paste plant facilities throughout Western Australia and the GRES team has mobilised and commenced initial works at Kathleen Valley,” Liontown boss Tony Ottaviano said.
LTR last traded at $1.40.