Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) has awarded Monadelphous (ASX:MND) a $100 million vertically integrated wet plant Structural, Mechanical, Piping (SMP) and Electrical and Instrumentation (E&I) contract.
Takeover target Liontown reports that the 9-month construction contract is a significant milestone for the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project located in the Northern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Combining the SMP and E&I work enables vertical integration of mechanical and electrical construction of the wet plant, providing efficiencies and underpinning confidence in the schedule to first production in mid-2024.
The contract scope includes installation of 1,200 tonnes of structural steel, 20,000m of piping, 600 mechanical equipment items, 200 platework items, the SAG mill, magnetics circuit, flotation circuit, tantalum recovery circuit, concentrate dewatering, and tails treatment.
Liotnown says deploying lessons learned from industry peers the wet plant has been designed to a high specification with quality and hard-wearing materials, including polyurethane-lined steel piping and ceramic lined high-wear areas, designed to reduce future maintenance requirements.
Additionally, the adoption of the lessons learned will be applied during the commissioning and ramp up of the plant, the company says. The extensive tender and evaluation process reflects the importance of these critical path contracts to delivering first production.
Monadelphous Managing Director Zoran Bebic says the contract extends the company’s significant portfolio of construction work secured to date this financial year and is a testament to Monadelphous’s strong reputation for the safe and reliable delivery of major resources projects.
“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.”
Headquartered in Perth, Monadelphous has more than 50 years of experience providing construction, maintenance and industrial services to the resources, energy, and infrastructure sectors.
Liontown’s Managing Director and CEO Tony Ottaviano adds that the $100 million contract 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 is an emerging tier-one battery minerals producer. Its aim is to be an ESG leader and a globally significant provider of battery minerals for the rapidly growing clean energy market.
The awarding of the contract comes days after Gina Rinehart-led Hancock Prospecting has not ruled out launching a rival bid to Albemarle’s (NYSE:ALB) $6.6 billion takeover tilt at Liontown.
Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting revealed on 12 September that it has a 7.72% stake in the target and is intending to have a say in the outcome of Albemarle’s offer via its blocking stake.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Liontown
