Altech Chemicals Ltd (ASX:ATC,FRA:A3Y) has exercised its option to purchase the 94 hectares of land at Meckering, Western Australia within which its granted and fully permitted kaolin mining lease lies.
The lease was granted on 19 May 2016 and contains a kaolin (china clay) resource of 12.7 million tonnes at 29.5% aluminium oxide.
This includes a kaolin ore reserve of 1.224 million tonnes at 30% aluminium oxide.
Kaolin ore from the mining lease is expected to provide feedstock for Altech’s proposed Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) plant.
At Meckering, the company is planning to mine circa 140,000 tonnes of kaolin in two-month mining campaigns, once every three years.
The alumina rich mined kaolin will be initially stockpiled, then loaded into standard 20 feet shipping containers at the rate of circa 43,500 tonnes per annum.
This will be transported by road to the port of Fremantle, Western Australia then shipped weekly to Malaysia.
Altech’s mining proposal and mine closure plan was approved in March 2017.
A works approval for construction of the kaolin screening and loading facility was granted in August 2017.
Altech’s Meckering mine is now fully permitted, with construction of the kaolin screening and loading facility able to proceed, subject to finance.
Iggy Tan, managing director, commented: “The exercise of Altech’s option to purchase the land over mining lease M70/1334 is another important milestone in advancing our HPA project; Meckering is now fully permitted for construction.
“Development of the kaolin screening and loading facility then initial mining can proceed upon finalising of project finance.”