Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) has taken another step toward full operation and critical minerals producer status with commissioning underway at the Lindi Jumbo Graphite Mine in southeast Tanzania.
This process includes pre-commissioning, dry commissioning and wet commissioning and this has started for the fully installed mechanical equipment.
Walkabout’s managing director & CEO Andrew Cunningham said: "The start of commissioning marks an exciting new chapter in the Lindi Jumbo story and is testament to the skill and exceptional work of our construction team and contractors.”
High-performance team
To facilitate the process, a high-performance team comprising graphite processing specialists from Jinpeng and senior technical staff from Lindi Jumbo’s operational team has been mobilised and is focused on safety and reliability of commissioning and start-up.
All team members have a track record in graphite and process plant commissioning with competence in design, maintenance and operational analysis.
Staged schedule
A staged commissioning schedule is planned to occur on the fully completed sections of the plant.
This will proceed sequentially following the process flow through the plant from the ROM bin through to the final product bagging units as follows:
“Impressive team”
“We are confident that the dry commissioning will proceed smoothly following independent QA/QC during Factory Acceptance Testing in China,” Cunningham said.
“The Jinpeng team has done a wonderful job to date and the impressive commissioning team we have assembled puts us in good stead for successful go live and first graphite production in Q1 2024."
Recent belt splicing activity at the crushing circuit, prefacing imminent dry commissioning.
Pre-commissioning
Pre-commissioning has been underway for several weeks, including the inspection and confirmation of working parts, bearings, idlers, cabling, wiring, emergency stops, v-belts, pump and motor specs, installation and splicing of the conveyors, Motor Control Centre (MCC) connections, safety guards and the necessary corrections or modifications.
The electricity generating capacity on site is sufficient to dry commission individual circuits or sections of the plant. However, further electrical components required for wet commissioning, including MV and LV switchgear and transformers, have been delayed for multiple weeks due to congestion at Dar es Salaam Port.
Once the transformers and switching gear have been received, it is expected the full 5MW of grid power will become available to advance wet commissioning.
The full planned electrical capacity, including backup generators, is necessary before the commissioning team will feed ore through the entire processing circuit.
Front end progress
Dry commissioning of the front end, including the crushing circuit from the ROM Bin through to the Fine-Ore-Bin, is underway.
The Crushing Circuit MCC has been powered-up, enabling the direction checks of the various motors within the circuit and the running of the various conveyor belts.
Once the commissioning team is satisfied that all is in good working order, and the conveyors are tracking as designed, graphitic ore from the stockpile can be fed into the crushing circuit.
Use of stockpile
Walkabout will use the 19,000 tonnes of high-grade graphitic ore on the stockpile for the wet commissioning process.
The stockpile will be put through the front end on a semi-continuous basis while the installation of the remainder of the equipment, including Rotex screens and burner, is completed.
Further pre-commissioning and dry-commissioning activities will be carried out in parallel where possible on the various completed circuits - grinding and flotation, filtration, screening, bagging - to optimise the commissioning schedule.
Under the EPC contract, the Lindi Jumbo plant is only considered to have been formally commissioned when the entire plant has been run - uninterrupted - at its nameplate capacity for 48 hours.
Any rectifications required before the plant being formally commissioned is the responsibility of the EPC contractor.