Highlights
Expected to unlock significant value from Atalaya's portfolio of polymetallic resources in the
Producing high-purity metals on-site will reduce transportation costs, treatment charges and penalties associated with producing and delivering conventional concentrates.
Expected to reduce Atalaya's carbon footprint through a reduction in land and sea freight and by utilising power from Proyecto Riotinto's planned solar plant.
Following its announcement on
Relative to conventional flotation techniques, the value creation potential of E-LIX offers a unique opportunity for Atalaya. As a result, as disclosed in the
The E-LIX plant will dissolve the valuable metals contained within the concentrates. The testwork and system design allows for the dissolution of chalcopyrite while avoiding the passivation of particles. After copper or other metals are brought into solution, they can be recovered by conventional precipitation or solvent extraction followed by electrowinning ('SX-EW').
Phase I plant capacity has been designed to produce between 3,000 to 10,000 tonnes of copper or zinc metal per year depending on the ratio of copper to zinc in the concentrate feed.
The estimated capex for Phase I is
The decision to approve and construct the Phase I industrial-sized plant follows over six years of evaluation and de-risking work including continuous tests at the laboratory, a small pilot plant and finally a semi-industrial pilot plant.
A semi-industrial E-LIX pilot plant was constructed in late 2019 and has operated during 2020 and 2021 despite the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of the pilot tests were included in the feasibility study and successive optimisation work. The long run continuous tests demonstrated the feasibility of leaching complex polymetallic concentrates with global recoveries of over 95% for copper and zinc while producing clean metal precipitates and/or high purity metals.
The use of the E-LIX System has shown the potential to unlock the significant value from the polymetallic sulphides contained within Atalaya's mineral resources, including: The polymetallic deposits of San Dionisio,
The significant contained metal within these historical drilled resources from San Dionisio and
Historical applications of differential flotation within the Iberian Pyrite Belt in
E-LIX is also expected to reduce Atalaya's carbon footprint. By producing high-purity metals on-site, Atalaya can reduce the transportation costs associated with delivering concentrates to smelters, avoid treatment and refining charges associated with converting concentrates into metal, and eliminate penalties associated with deleterious elements often contained within concentrates produced in the Iberian Pyrite Belt and elsewhere. The E-LIX plant is also expected to utilise the renewable energy that will be produced by Proyecto Riotinto's planned solar plant.
Contact:
Tel: +34 959 59 28 50
Email: comunicacion@atalayamining.com
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