Frontier Lithium awards feasibility study contract for PAK project in northwest
Frontier Lithium, a Sudbury-based lithium exploration and development mining company, has announced the first phase of the definitive feasibility study for its PAK lithium project in a remote area of Northwestern Ontario.
The company awarded the contract to DRA Americas Inc., a fully-owned subsidiary of DRA Global. DRA Global is an international multi-disciplinary engineering, project delivery, and operations management group primarily focused on the mining, minerals, and metals industry.
The contract award signals the start of the next phase of project engineering. The fully integrated mine, mill, and refinery flowsheet demonstrated in a preliminary feasibility study will be studied in two distinct scopes, with the mine and mill scope set to conclude in the next 12 to 18 months.
It is projected that a mine and milling facility with an estimated output of 200,000 metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate per annum will be brought online in two stages.
The first stage will see the use of an existing winter road for the construction of the first concentrator line targeting the high purity PAK deposit and facilitating the production of up to 100,000 metric tonnes per annum of premium spodumene concentrates.
Frontier aims to use the road for transportation to market.
The second phase would see the development and ramping of a second mill line into production, concurrent with the construction of an all-season access-road to the region.
Frontier says implementing a phased construction approach will help mitigate project risks, capitalize on existing infrastructure, and focuses on short-term production goals. It hopes the approach will also minimize potential delays associated with all-season road construction.
Located about 175 north of Red Lake near the First Nation communities of Sandy Lake, Deer Lake and North Spirit Lake, the PAK lithium site contains North America’s highest-grade lithium resource and is the largest in Ontario by size. The project encompasses close to 27,000 hectares and remains largely unexplored. Frontier Lithium is proposing to develop the project as an open-pit and underground mine, with a life span of 16 years.
The company hopes to start construction in early 2025.