Core Lithium advances Finniss restart
Core Lithium is progressing the restart study for its Finniss operation in the Northern Territory, with the study on track for completion by the June 2025 quarter.
In late 2023, Core suspended early works at the BP33 project, an underground mine located at Finniss, citing difficulties with mining and construction during the wet season and a renewed focus on reducing expenditure.
Following this, Core suspended mining operations at the Grants open pit – the starter operation at Finniss – in January 2024 to “preserve business value in light of weak (lithium) market conditions” primarily caused mainly by a supply surplus and an increase in lithium supplies from countries such as China.
Since then, Core has worked to restart Finniss as soon as possible.
“The Finniss operation has been well built and maintained, with over $250 million invested capital across Grants and BP33,” Core said.
“The restart study is focused on optimising current infrastructure and minimising complexities during future mining and processing to increase productivity. Work completed to date has reinforced the future opportunity, which exists at Finniss.”
As part of the Finniss restart study, Core is advancing an optimised mine plan for BP33, which is a large, sub-vertical pegmatite body with approximately 350m of strike and up to 40m true width.
BP33’s total ore resource increased by 223 per cent in September 2024, now standing at 8.7 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.38 per cent lithium oxide.
“The geometry of the orebody lends itself to longitudinal open stopping underground mining,” Core said.
“Various opportunities to improve productivity and reduce operating costs relative to the previous mine plan have been identified and are being pursued.
“Metallurgical test work and studies are being completed with the aim of increasing future recoveries, yield and capacity of the DMS (dense media separation) plant. Work completed to date has presented opportunities to optimise the process flowsheet without the need to install a floatation circuit.”
Core has also ended its remaining operating contracts at Finniss in relation to the mine’s operational period.
“Transitioning to 100 per cent ownership of all site infrastructure presents the potential to adopt a revised operating model for the site in future,” Core said.