Arcadia crushing circuit now operational, production next week
Arcadia lithium pilot plant crushing circuit in Goromonzi is now operational with production expected to begin within the coming week Prospect Resources announced on Tuesday.
Anerudo Mapuranga
The Australia Stock Exchange-listed mining concern took delivery of the pre-assembled pilot plant crushing equipment last month indicating a major milestone for the Arcadia project.
“A big milestone for the #Arcadia #pilotplant. The crushing circuit is operational, with production to start within the next week!” the company said.
The company Managing Director Sam Hosack commending on the development on Twitter said:
“Commissioning is always the most challenging and rewarding part of a project, tackling arising issues and having the commitment to deliver on your goals. Safely and confidently let’s get that technical petalite product stockpile built.”
The operation of the pilot plant will allow for the accumulation of knowledge during design, mitigating the scaling issues that peer lithium producers have experienced on account of a too-rapid growth in supply
Prospect will first focus on producing petalite, which is technical grade and spodumene, (chemical) grade lithium samples.
In mid-April Mr Hosack said the project remained on time and on budget with a target to ship high purity petalite by the end of June 2021.
“The pilot plan forms a critical part of our project development and market integration strategies and we look forward to providing key customers with high-value petalite product to complete their qualification requirements.
“Prospect is generating spodumene samples via an experienced third party laboratory, as downstream lithium chemical customers only require 2kg spodumene samples to qualify,” Mr Hosack said.
Arcadia represents a globally significant hard rock lithium resource and is being rapidly developed by Prospect’s team, focusing on near term production of high purity petalite and spodumene concentrates.
Arcadia is one of the most advanced lithium projects globally, with a definitive feasibility study, offtake partners secured and a clear pathway to production.