Civil construction of a Stage 1 dense media separation (DMS) plant has been progressed to 90% completion at critical metals miner Kodal Minerals’ flagship fully-funded Bougouni lithium project, in southern Mali.

This is despite being impacted by minor on-site delays, such as heavy rainfall, and equipment and machinery transportation challenges from China to West Africa.

The project remains on target to meet its $65-million project development budget despite the impact of the minor schedule delays.

The construction phase of the project – which has, to date, employed about 164 personnel from the surrounding villages – has seen structural, mechanical, platework and piping (SMPP) contractor Bambara Resources, together with its key subcontractor Yantai Jinpeng Mining Machinery Company, being granted unhindered access to start installation works.

The first two shipments from China carrying the critical long-lead equipment items and structural steelwork for the buildings arrived at the Abidjan port, in Côte d'Ivoire, in late August, and a steady stream of deliveries has ensued in priority order to support the sequence of the SMPP installation programme.

To date, over 160 truck deliveries have reached the site, carrying crushing and DMS equipment and the associated building steelwork.

Kodal reports that road transit times have proceeded as expected, with deliveries averaging seven days from port to site, and with the route and process now well established, in the past two weeks six-day deliveries have been achieved.

Two final shipments are expected to arrive from China to complete the supply of the balance of imported materials, equipment and spares: one shipment departed the Tianjin port on September 13 containing predominantly the electrical equipment, cables and cable supports, as well as the majority of piping materials, valves and instruments.

The shipment is expected to arrive at the port in Abidjan in mid-November.

The last shipment will contain the power plant, transformers and associated materials.

Factory acceptance testing of the power plant was conducted towards the end of September, in China, and a vessel was secured for loading a week after.

Currently, it is anticipated that based on recent experience with shipping transit times, the power plant will arrive on site in mid-December.

To mitigate the impact of potential delays to the commissioning of the DMS processing plant, Kodal will arrange for temporary hired generators to be used to conduct the pre-commissioning of equipment in advance. This will ensure the main drives are operational before connection to the mains power plant, so that commissioning with ore can proceed quickly thereafter.

“The development of the Bougouni lithium project . . . continues to gain momentum, with the recent delivery of the DMS and crushing circuit equipment to the site and the subsequent commencement of building onsite,” says Kodal CEO Bernard Aylward.

Positively, he notes that the openpit mining is continuing ahead of schedule and a stockpile of ore is being built well in advance of the commissioning of the processing circuit.

Openpit mining activities at the Ngoualana deposit continue to advance ahead of schedule, with pre-stripping of free-dig material essentially complete.

Mining of pegmatite ore has commenced with nine blasts conducted on site and a stockpile of ore growing well in advance of plant commissioning.

However, Aylward notes that the cumulative effect of heavy rainfall, coupled with delays in shipping and transport to the site, led to the prudent decision taken by management to advise of a potential delay in first production by a small number of weeks to early in the first quarter of 2025, against the previously-advised timeframe of the fourth quarter of 2024.

“Nonetheless, the team is still focussed on achieving production at the earliest possible timeframe and is taking all steps to complete construction and commissioning as expeditiously as possible.”