WA Kaolin sets up Wickepin for development

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Wickepin is one of the world’s largest remaining primary resources of kaolin clay products, boasting a mine life of more than 30 years.

WA Kaolin is already producing kaolin products from Wickepin for its Tier 1 customers.

The company will use the funds raised from its capital raising to accelerate a boost in production to 200,000 tonnes a year at Wickepin by the end of 2022.

The funds will also be used for a staged expansion program and constructing a processing plant at East Wickepin, which will be completed in 12 months’ time.

According to the Wickepin definitive feasibility study, WA Kaolin has explored the option to ramp up production to beyond 400,000 tonnes a year, due to the extensive mineral resource of 109.1 million tonnes within its granted mining lease.

WA Kaolin has also outlined a probable ore reserve of 30.5 million tonnes and inferred mineral resource of 644.5 million tonnes of kaolinised granite across all Wickepin tenements.

“This world-class resource at Wickepin is one of the largest known remaining premium resources of kaolin globally and is characterised by its purity, quality and brightness, producing kaolin products that typically attract higher prices,” WA Kaolin chief executive Andrew Sorensen said.

“The company developed its proprietary K99 process in a working plant at Kwinana, south of Perth and this technology coupled with the high-quality nature of the Wickepin resource, delivers ultra-bright kaolin with a low cost of production, compared with other processes that use chemical bleaching and multiple wet mechanical and magnetic separation metals.

“We are looking to boost production at Wickepin and funds from our initial public offer will allow us to accelerate that process.”

The Wickepin project is located 200 kilometres south-east of Perth.