Flotation optimisation testwork from Tivan’s Speewah fluorite project in Western Australia has delivered improvements in fluorite grades and recoveries.
Fluorite is used to produce commercial grade fluorspar products and fluorine. There is currently no domestic fluorspar or fluorine production in Australia, but Tivan is looking to become the first following the Federal Government adding fluorine to the critical minerals list in December 2023.
Tivan’s testwork program returned grades of up to 98.8 per cent calcium fluorite and improved fluorite recoveries relative to historical testwork completed for Speewah in 2004, increasing from 90 per cent to 95 per cent.
Tivan said the results demonstrate that the 97 per cent calcium fluorite acidspar product specification can be achieved.
“The testwork results represent major de-risking of the Speewah fluorite project and open multiple pathways for design optimisation and revenue enhancement going forward,” Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson said.
“In fast-tracking the pre-feasibility study last year, we made strong assumptions as to historical testwork and expected fluorite recovery. Our team have worked systematically since, utilising modern flotation reagents.
“They have achieved a substantial improvement on all historical results and have demonstrated that the 97 per cent calcium fluorite acidspar threshold can be achieved without a material dimunition in fluorite recovery.”
Tivan will now progress a comminution and beneficiation testwork program to support the engineering design of Speewah’s process plant as part of the project’s feasibility study.
“Given the low levels of intrinsic impurities at Speewah, most notably arsenic, Tivan is now in a great position to optimise the project further into a feasibility study,” Wilson said.
“The results also enable us to further support the marketing and distribution campaign of our proposed JV (joint venture) partner, Sumitomo Corporation, in the period ahead.”
Tivan also hopes to apply the findings from the Speewah testwork to its Sandover fluorite project in the Northern Territory later this year.
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