Nova Minerals has completed the engineering and design phase for its antimony pilot processing plant at the Estelle project site in Alaska, US.
Design work covers several facilities across the operation, including the Whiskey Bravo front-end processing site and Port MacKenzie beneficiation plant and refinery.
Engineering for the pilot plant aims to meet military-grade quality specifications for antimony trisulfide set by the US Department of War.
Operations will utilise a cleaner hydrometallurgical processing method.
Modular plant design allows for future expansion with additional refining circuits, such as those for antimony trioxide and antimony metal production.
Construction activities are expected to begin this quarter, with procurement of process plant equipment already under way.
According to the company, key equipment components have been delivered or are in transit to support construction in the coming months.
The project has acquired more than 40 containers of equipment including crushers, a ball mill, ore sorters, screens, flotation cells and conveyors.
Many of these items were purchased from a recently decommissioned North American processing facility, which is said to reduce procurement times and facilitate a transition from engineering to construction.
Bulk sample material for the pilot plant will be sourced from the Stibium and Styx locations within the Estelle Project claims and transported to Whiskey Bravo for primary processing, before being moved to Port MacKenzie for further concentration and refining.
Once operations begin, the plant will process stibnite-bearing material to generate an antimony trisulfide product intended for sale or further downstream applications.
The final refined product will be filtered, dried and prepared for shipment.
Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen said: “We continue to make rapid progress on the antimony project and remain ahead of schedule, with another major milestone now completed.
“The engineering and design plan has been developed based on extensive metallurgical test work and process flowsheet development.
“With this work complete, and procurement of key equipment now finalised, the project has entered the execution phase.”
“Nova Minerals completes engineering for Estelle antimony pilot plant” was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.