Element 25 Ltd (ASX:E25) has started ore haulage under the terms of a Letter of Intent executed with AK Evans Group Australia for transportation of manganese concentrate from the company’s Butcherbird Manganese Project to Utah Point in Port Hedland.
The first trucks departed the project on June 8, 2021, containing the first manganese concentrate produced from the project as part of the commissioning and ramp up of the Stage 1 processing plant under a take or pay offtake agreement with OMH.
This plant will produce a nominal 365,000 tonnes of high-quality manganese concentrate over a mine life of around 40 years prior to a proposed 3X expansion in Stage 2.
Haulage of the remaining concentrate to make up the planned total 27,000 tonnes of material will occur over coming days culminating in loading of the first ship containing Butcherbird manganese product and this is scheduled for the last week of June 2021.
“Key milestone for project development”
E25 managing director Justin Brown said: “The team has bowled over yet another key milestone on our journey to fast-track the development of the project.
“The successful commissioning and ramp up of this first stage of development provides a fantastic foundation from which to grow this business both by expanding concentrate production as part of our Stage 2 expansion plans but also by developing the processing infrastructure to produce battery grade Zero Carbon ManganeseTM products for the Li-Ion batteries which will power the electrification of the global vehicle fleet.”
Stage 2 expansion plans
The project team will now turn its focus to the next stages of the multi-stage development strategy including a Stage 2 expansion of the concentrate business followed by a Stage 3 development to convert the concentrate material into high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to power the global transition away from fossil fuel powered mobility.
Manganese is emerging as an increasingly important ingredient for EV batteries, with potential supply constraints for nickel and cobalt forcing battery manufacturers to look to high manganese cathodes to produce the vast amount of cathode material required by the EV industry in coming years.
The project is ideally placed to feed this potential demand, with advanced flowsheet development work undertaken in 2019 and 2020 confirming a simple, unique, ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure leach process for E25 ores which - when combined with offsets - will target the world’s first Zero Carbon ManganeseTM for EV cathode manufacture.