The Covalent Lithium Pty Ltd project consists of a mine, concentrator, aerodrome, village and supporting infrastructure at Mount Holland, and a refinery at Kwinana to produce battery quality lithium hydroxide for the international market.
The mine site is centred on the Earl Grey hard-rock lithium deposit south of Southern Cross in Western Australia, approximately 500 km east of Perth. The Mount Holland Concentrator will send approximately 383,000 dry tonnes per year of spodumene at 5.5% Li2O to the Kwinana refinery. Once operational, the project will produce approximately 50,200 tonnes per year of battery quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (45,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent, or LCE) at the Kwinana refinery.
Melchor Contracting were engaged to assist in the finalisation of the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) review for the Civils Package for Covalent Lithium Mt Holland Concentrator project which Primero were successfully awarded the EPC contract for. Melchor Contracting have undertaken the detailed earthworks and construction of all concrete structures comprising of over 13,400 cubic meters of structural concrete and over 1,500 tonne of reinforcement.
During their time on the project, the Melchor Contracting crew remained completely incident and injury free.
The project consisted of 10 major areas, with some of the key structures listed below:
- Area 121 Primary Crushing Vault:
Total of 1,916m³ concrete, towering over 17.9m high
- Area 121 Coarse Ore Stockpile Reclaim Tunnel:
Total of 689m³, over 7.2m high and 30m long
- Area 125 Concentrate Handling & Storage:
Total of 1,127m³, over 220 linear meters of walls, ranging from 1.8m to 4m high.
The Handling Area consisted of over2,520m² of slabs
