Altura buys Roy Hill mine camp

Altura Mining has followed the example of neighbouring lithium project developer, Pilbara Minerals, by purchasing a mothballed mine camp from Roy Hill Holdings.

Perth-based Altura plans to begin construction work at its Pilgangoora lithium project by the end of the year, and has purchased a 324-room accommodation village from Roy Hill to support that goal, for an undisclosed sum.

The village is two years old, and was put on care and maintenance by Roy Hill earlier this year.

The infrastructure is 20 kilometres (about 15 minutes) from Altura’s Pilgangoora project area, and so the company has opted to leave the camp in its place rather than truck it closer to site and reassemble it.

The village contains cleared space for a further 176 rooms, with all central infrastructure catered for a personnel capacity of 500.

“A key element to enabling the timely construction of the mine and associated infrastructure is having convenient and suitable accommodation available to its workforce for both the construction and subsequent operational aspects of the project,” Altura said in a statement.

The company also announced it had placed orders for a number of long lead equipment items, as it keeps to a schedule of achieving first lithium production at Pilgangoora by the end of next year.

It follows news last week that Pilbara Minerals had also purchased a dormant 300-person camp facility from Roy Hill for use at its Pilgangoora lithium project, for an undisclosed amount.

Altura shares were 3.8 per cent higher to 13.5 cents each ahead of the close of trade.