Astron’s subsidiary Donald Mineral Sands has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for its Donald Mineral Sands titanium and zirconium mineral project to the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC).
This EPC contract award follows a period of protracted negotiations after the establishment of a framework agreement between the two companies in 11 April 2014. CMEC will be the EPC contractor responsible for equipment procurement and funding the first phase of the Donald Mineral Sands project.
Further subcontracting and vendor opportunities may arise as CMEC starts work on the US$135 million contract, which includes all design, procurement, civil engineering and construction, installation, training, commissioning, technical service and other works of the project during this phase.
The EPC contract sets out the process for supply and installation of equipment for the Mining Unit Plan (MUP) and Wet Concentration Plant (WCP) for the project, as well as funding assistance.
Under the terms of the contract, Donald Mineral Sands will contribute 15% (US$18 million) to the costs of the project, and acquire all necessary rights and regulatory approvals.
The Donald Project is a mineral sands project located 300 km north west of Melbourne, in the Murray Basin, close to existing infrastructure and supported by road, rail and port networks. Expected products include iron, titanium, zirconium, silica and rare earths. It is owned by Astron through its Donald Mineral Sands subsidiary.
According to Astron, the Donald Mineral Sands project is possibly the largest zircon deposit in the world, with equivalent large titanium deposits.
The project will be a standard open-cut mining operation, with an expected mine life of 31 years. After mining, minerals will be processed by conventional methods to produce heavy mineral concentrate, which will in turn be processed through an on-site Mineral Separation Plant to recover zircon, rutile, ilmenite and leucoxene. Technical processes being developed by Astron’s China arm will also be applied to the products from the project, allowing extraction of other minerals and resources.
Astron is the largest zirconium chemical producer in the world, and it specialises in developing technology for, and the production of, advanced materials and advanced chemicals from mineral sands. It is currently in the midst of expanding into the larger and higher margin titanium markets.
Astron is planning on commencing production at the Donald mineral sands open cut mine in the first quarter of 2016. Construction and engineering work on the site is expected to take around two years with the ramp up to full production taking another 21 months.