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A Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) is now underway at Impact Minerals Limited’s (ASX: IPT) advanced Lake Hope High Purity Alumina (HPA) Project in Western Australia.
The Project, in which Impact is earning an 80% interest, offers the Company the opportunity to become a low-cost entrant into the HPA chemical market, a high-margin business forecast to grow strongly over the next decade (ASX Release March 21st 2023).
Lake Hope contains a globally unique deposit of high-grade aluminium clay minerals in the top few metres of a playa salt lake, which has unique physical and chemical properties that will allow for low- cost mining and offsite metallurgical processing via a novel and cost-disruptive acid leaching process.
Preliminary economic studies indicate that the production of HPA and related products from Lake Hope will be cost-competitive with current producers and other developers in Australia and globally (ASX Release March 21st 2023).
Impact has appointed the following experienced companies to undertake the work programs for the PFS, which will be completed over the next 12 to 18 months, as well as the work required to lodge a Mining Lease Application in early Quarter 3 this year:
Maiden Resource Estimation: H and S Consultants, Brisbane. H and S are well-known resource estimation specialists with specific experience in resource calculations for deposits in Western Australian playa lakes.
Environmental and Approvals Process Consultants: Biota Environmental Services, Perth. Biota will complete flora and fauna surveys and also help coordinate the approvals process for the Mining Lease Application.
Metallurgical Consultants: Strategic Metallurgy, Perth. Strategic will help oversee and manage the optimisation test work programme for the novel acid leach process, which is currently already underway at ALS Laboratories in Perth. Strategic will also complete process flow sheet design and preliminary engineering studies.
Mining Studies: The Mining Engineer Mine Consulting (TME). TME will complete initial mine optimization studies for Lake Hope, which will likely be mined on a campaign basis every few years.
Financial Modelling: Platek Analytics. Platek Analytics will review Impact’s internal economic model for both the PFS and a Scoping Study, which will be released following the completion of the Mineral Resource Estimate.
The entire PFS will be managed by Roland Gotthard, who discovered the Lake Hope Project and has now joined Impact as Project Manager.
Impact's Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, said: “We have hit the ground running since announcing the transformational joint venture at Lake Hope. At short notice, we have assembled a first-class team of consultants to complete the Pre-Feasibility Study work programs over the next 12 to 18 months and drive us towards production. In addition, this work will allow us to release a Maiden Resource and an initial Scoping Study over the next two months, as well as lodge a Mining Lease application in the third Quarter of this year. We have never been busier as we become the next "playa” in HPA.”
About the Lake Hope Project
The Lake Hope Project covers numerous prospective salt lakes between Hyden and Norseman in southern Western Australia, a Tier One jurisdiction (Figure 1). It comprises one granted exploration licence (E63/2086), covering the Lake Hope deposit already discovered, together with five further exploration licence applications (ELA63/2317, 2318 and 2319, and ELA74/673 and 764) which are poorly explored. The tenements cover about 238 km2 and are all 100% owned by Playa One.
Figure 1. Location of Playa One tenements with options for trucking and off-site processing.
Geology
The salt lakes of Western Australia are well known for their unique and complex hydrogeochemistry, which has led to the formation of a wide variety of economic minerals and brines within the playa systems. These include the world-class Yeelirrie uranium deposit (>100 Mlb U3O8), significant potash brines, gypsum and lime-sand resources.
Click here for the full ASX Release
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