Element 25 continues to drive Butcherbird Manganese Project on fast-track to production with appointment of mining contractor

Element 25 Limited’s (ASX:E25) (FRA:QFP) project development activities continue to accelerate at its 100%-owned Butcherbird Manganese Project in Western Australia, with the appointment of a mining contractor and resident manager.  Development of the project remains on time and on budget, with the company fully funded to first production based on current forecasts and this is expected to be achieved next quarter. Camp construction is underway, with key processing plant equipment in transit from vendors.  The work program for development of the borefield has commenced and the expansion case pre-feasibility study (PFS) is nearing completion. Project on time, on budget E25 managing director Justin Brown said: “The project development team continues to make excellent progress at Butcherbird as we fast-track the commencement of Stage 1 operations.” First production remains on schedule for the first quarter of 2021 with the company fully funded to this milestone based on current forecasts. Mining contractor appointed Iron Mining Contracting Pty Ltd (IMC) has been appointed as the preferred mining contractor. IMC, a diversified civil, mining and crushing contractor, operates a range of projects across iron ore, gold, base metals and oil & gas commodities throughout Western Australia. The contractor will be mobilising to site in December 2020 to complete the required civil earthworks including access roads, the tailings storage facility (TSF) and the processing plant site. On completion of the civil work program, IMC will transition to mining and provide material to feed the processing plant. Camp construction It has entered into an agreement with Refuel Australia for the provision of camp management services at the Kumarina Roadhouse, about 30 kilometres south of the project. E25 is in the process of installing a 40-man camp at Kumarina, where the operation workforce will be accommodated. Refuel will provide room servicing and messing, as well as the supply of diesel at competitive rates. There is also a serviceable airstrip immediately adjacent to the Kumarina facility, which will potentially be used for a charter service to meet fly-in-fly-out requirements. Equipment mobilisation A number of key items of equipment are now in transit to Fremantle in December 2020. All vendors have been providing regular updates and build schedules are on time and budget. Borefield work program The work program for the installation of the borefield has started with production bores to be installed in the coming weeks. This will be followed by the installation of a pipeline to deliver water to the main project site. Operational workforce E25 has appointed experienced resident manager Sven Tegeler to oversee operational readiness preparations, as well as coordinating the recruitment and training of the operations team. Tegeler will be a critical part of the construction and commissioning team and will then transition to a site management role to oversee operations of the mine. Expansion studies The current development plans have a 42-year mine life whilst only exploiting 20% of the global resource base. E25 has always planned for this stage-1 development to be a start-up operation, with plans to expand the operation into firstly larger volumes of manganese concentrate and then to develop infrastructure to further process the concentrate into both battery-grade manganese sulphate and Electrolytic Manganese Metal (EMM). In line with this strategy, the company is finalising an updated PFS to detail the feasibility and commercial impacts of an expansion of the concentrate operation.