One Of The Largest Undeveloped Premium Kaolin Resources In The World
WA Kaolin Ltd (ASX: WAK) reports that building works have commenced at the company’s wholly owned Wickepin Kaolin Project, located 220km south east of Perth, Western Australia.
CEO, Andrew Sorensen, revealed that AUSPAN, one of Australia’s leading steel frame construction companies has been contracted to carry out the Stage 1 Building Structural Design and Construction.
AUSPAN has now mobilised to site to commence its work programme with a team of circa 20 ramping up over coming weeks. The concrete batching plant was delivered to site on January 6, and work has commenced on the footings and part of the slab being laid ahead of the plant build.
“Our 2021 work programme has already commenced in earnest with the arrival of the crew and equipment to proceed with the initial building works of the kaolin production plant. At this point, we are on track to commence the build in February and will provide regular updates to the market as we proceed,” Mr Sorensen said.
AUSPAN, General Manager, Ben Richardson, said construction on site is ramping up following the Christmas break.
“Footings are almost complete and we will be ramping up to a construction team of approximately 25 by early February. It is exciting to be working with WA Kaolin on this world leading Kaolin Processing Plant. With approximately 100T of structural steel already delivered to site, the landscape is about to change with the commencement of structural steel installation,” he said.
WA Kaolin’s Wickepin Kaolin Project contains a Mineral Resource (JORC 2012) of 644.5 million tonnes of high-grade premium kaolinised granite. The project Ore Reserve Estimate of 30.5 million tonnes delivers a life of mine of 30 years.
The world-class resource at Wickepin is one of the largest known remaining premium primary resources of kaolin globally. It is characterised by its purity, quality and brightness, producing kaolin products that are suitable for most if not all markets, and typically attract higher prices from a growing collection of top tier customers.
With more than $42 million invested in the project to date, WA Kaolin has developed a proprietary dry processing method, known as K99, to turn raw material into market suitable feedstock for global customers, and constructed a small-scale commercial processing plant on 3ha of portside industrial land at Kwinana, WA.
The company is focused on increasing production from Wickepin to 400,000 tonnes per annum by 2023 with further modular increases to capacity to be implemented in tune with market demand.
