Pilbara Minerals has lifted the lid on more details regarding the expansion of its Pilgangoora lithium operation in Western Australia.
The company is in the process of converting Pilgangoora to a 680,000-tonne-per-annum operation (P680 project) which involves the installation of a new crushing and ore sorting facility.
Pilbara Minerals chief executive officer and managing director Dale Henderson told investors that when completed it will be the world’s largest lithium ore sorter.
“It (the ore sorter) stands to materially improve the operating performance from the asset,” Henderson said. “The testwork in pursuit of this technology deployment goes back to 2018 with testing and progression of the project continuing through the last downturn.
“The ore sorter’s a well-proven technology, however the application for its use at this scale is leading for our industry.”
TOMRA Mining has led the design and installation of the ore sorter, leveraging its 50 years’ experience in developing sensor-based sorting technologies. TOMRA said it has designed and built 90 per cent of the world’s large-scale mining sorting plants with capacity above 300 tonnes per hour.
Pilbara Minerals turned to TOMRA to address a key challenge of processing spodumene ore contaminated with barren host rock. The Pilgangoora ore sorter will utilise high sensor resolution and ejection accuracy to ensure high lithium recovery and waste removal.
Once the ore sorter is completed, Pilbara Minerals expects commissioning to commence this quarter, with ramp-up scheduled for the September quarter of 2025.
In parallel, Pilbara Minerals is advancing its P1000 project, which will see Pilgangoora become a one-million-tonne-per-annum operation.
Henderson said the P1000 project remains on schedule and budget, with bulk earthworks and engineering deliverables completed.
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