Pilbara Minerals and Altura Mining have struck agreements for ongoing co-operation in the development of their neighboring lithium projects at Pilgangoora in the north west of W.A.
Altura’s deposit is immediately southwest of Pilbara’s giant lithium-tantalum deposit, which earlier this week was the subject of a 136% boost in reserves and is now widely considered to be the largest hard rock Lithium deposit in the world.
The companies said today that recent drilling had essentially confirmed that some of their deposits were the same ore body and this proximity created many opportunities to unlock “logistical, operational and strategic synergies”.
The two companies already have a strong working relationship, and have formalized this with a joint access agreement and a memorandum of understanding.
Under the joint access agreement, Pilbara and Altura have mutually removed any objections by either company to the other’s tenure and they have agreed to share site access roads and pipeline locations.
The MOU establishes a framework to jointly evaluate the potential to expand or jointly exploit the lithium-rich pegmatite zones that cross the tenement boundaries between the projects.
Pilbara are on the cusp of releasing their Definitive Feasibility Study for Pilgangoora, which is the world’s leading lithium development project, based on a massive mineral resource of nearly 130m tonnes.
Altura Mining is also close to releasing its own DFS for the development of a smaller, lower grade resource, estimated at 35.7 million tonnes at 1.05% Li2O.
Pilbara’s Managing Director and CEO, Ken Brinsden said “The synergies between the two projects are compelling, given that recent drilling has essentially confirmed that the mineralisation on either side of the tenement boundaries essentially forms part of the same orebody in our Southern Zone.
“The Access Agreement and MOU put in place a collaborative framework which ensures that both companies can move ahead quickly with their development plans, while also jointly evalutating opportunities to optimise the reserve and mining schedules by considering the potential to exploit mineralisation which crosses the tenement boundaries.
“We are pleased to have entered into these arrangements with Altura, which demonstrates a positive and collaborative approach to the development of valuable resources in this state which will ultimately benefit a wide range of stakeholders.” Said Mr Brinsden
