Latrobe Magnesium nears commissioning at Victorian demonstration plant

Latrobe Magnesium (ASX: LMG) continues to ramp up activities as it closes in on the commissioning stage and early product sales at its unique demonstration plant in Victoria.

In a solid financial position after successfully raising $3.06 million near the end of last year, Latrobe enters 2024 with a number of milestones reached and others approaching completion at its pilot magnesium production plant in the Latrobe Valley.

Latrobe is utilising a world-first patented process that will extract and sell magnesium metal and cementitious material from industrial fly ash, which is currently a waste resource from the nearby Yallourn brown coal power generation.

Following construction and testing of the pilot plant, the company aims to build a commercial plant with a capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes per annum of magnesium.

The first commercial stage of the development has been a recently-implemented fast-track plan to produce bags of magnesium oxide (MgO).

Production set to commence

The commencement of production through the new MgO strategy is imminent, with Latrobe reporting that the project’s EPCM (engineering, procurement, construction management) team has made the necessary modifications to existing engineering deliverables to install piping and a bagging plant to produce one-tonne bulk bags of MgO that can then be sold to customers.

The MgO bagging plant fabrication was completed as scheduled in December, has been third-party inspected, factory-tested and is currently in transit to the demonstration plant project site for installation.

Latrobe has now signed a memorandum of understanding with Rainstorm Dust Control for the sale of MgO in the initial phase, as well as any excess MgO produced.

Along with providing an intermediate product for customer sales, the company also elected to include the MgO strategy to fast-track assessment of the operability of the unique technology being utilised at the plant.

New control room acquired

In a further strategic move to keep on top of capital expenditure budgets and avoid any unnecessary schedule delays, Latrobe has elected to purchase a new standalone, ready-to-install modular control room.

The new control room has already been delivered to the site, reducing the time associated with the refurbishment of the existing redundant buildings adjacent to the fabrication sheds.

The electrical and instrumentation contractors team will now begin cable-pulls and installation of equipment necessary for the control systems.

Further activities

Other major project construction activities completed recently include major fabrication, refractory and erection of structural steel related to the MgO strategy.

Installation of mechanical equipment is also well-advanced.

Construction at the fly ash beneficiation area has also been completed and is now ready for commissioning.