The planned expansion of Element 25’s (ASX:E25) flagship Butcherbird Manganese Mine in Western Australia has received formal approval from the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
Element 25 says this is a key approval under the Western Australian regulatory framework and marks an important milestone for the 100% owned Butcherbird project.
A works approval application was submitted in October 2024 and is now the only pending approval for Butcherbird, required to begin construction of the expanded processing facility.
All other required approvals and access agreements are in place and established from Butcherbird’s stage one operations including water abstraction, heritage clearances, Native Title and pastoral agreements.
Element 25 is currently working to develop an expanded processing facility to increase manganese concentrate production to 1.1 million tonnes per annum.
The company intends to construct a large-scale processing facility to produce a nominal 1.1Mtpa of ‘high-quality’ manganese oxide concentrate, which will be targeted at customers in the downstream steel industry.
It will also be the feedstock for its “first-of-its-kind battery grade high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) processing facility”, which Element 25 plans to construct in Louisiana, US, in partnership with General Motorsand Stellantis.
The HPMSM project has received support from the US Government’s Department of Energy (DoE), and was selected to negotiate for the award of US$166 million in DoE grant funding for the Project.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Element 25
