Monadelphous wins $100m works contract for Kathleen Valley Lithium Project

Liontown Resources has announced that it has awarded a major works contract for its world-class Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in Western Australia. 

Monadelphous has been awarded a $100 million contract to undertake Structural, Mechanical, Piping (SMP) and Electrical and Instrumentation (E&I) for the vertically integrated wet plant at the Kathleen Valley project. 

“We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this significant contract in the growing energy transition metals sector, and look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with Liontown Resources,” Monadelphous Director Zoran Bebic said. 

The awarding of this final construction contract marks a significant milestone in the development of the project. 

Combing the works for both SMP and E&I will allow vertical integration of mechanical and electrical construction of the wet plant, making it more efficient and it underpins confidence in delivering first production in mid-2024. 

Scope of works of the contract award include the installation of 1,200 tonnes of structural steel, 20,000 metres of piping, 600 mechanical equipment items, 200 platework items, the SAG mill, magnetics circuit, flotation circuit, tantalum recovery circuit, concentrate dewatering, and tails treatment. 

The wet plant for the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project has been designed to a high specification with quality and hard-wearing materials as a result of lessons from industry peers. The materials to be used on the plant include polyurethane-lined steel piping and ceramic lined high-wear areas designed to reduce future maintenance requirements. 

Adoption of the lessons learned will be applied during the commissioning and ramp up of the wet plant. 

“I’m pleased to announce that we have awarded the SMP and E&I contract to Tier-1 contractor Monadelphous. Valued at approximately A$100 million this marks the final major construction contract to be awarded for Kathleen Valley. 

“The vertically integrated approach of combining the SMP and E&I packages enables Monadelphous to efficiently deliver both programs of work to a very high standard and played a large part in its successful tender. 

“Monadelphous has a large resources pool, experience in the hard rock lithium sector, and a proven track record of delivering large-scale multi-disciplinary projects in Western Australia, which came through strongly throughout the evaluation process. Their demonstrated skills, capability and professionalism reflects Liontown’s expectations of a partnership. 

“There is a clear line of sight to first spodumene production mid-next year,” Liontown Resources Managing Director and CEO Tony Ottaviano said. 

The Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is located about 60 kilometres north of Leinster and 680 kilometres north-east of Perth. The project site is accessible by sealed highways that connect to mineral exporting ports at Geraldton and Esperance. 

Once operational, the project is expected to have an initial capacity of 3Mtpa, producing about 500ktpa of spodumene concentrate. A 4Mtpa expansion is also being planned on the 6th year of operations to increase production to 700ktpa of spodumene concentrate. 

Earlier this year, Liontown Resources awarded a $1 billion contract to Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd for underground mining services at the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project. You can read more about the contract award here. 

Source: Monadelphous; Liontown Resources (1, 2); Australian Mining