The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has asked TNG to provide additional information for an environment impact statement (EIS) at the Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project which could set back approval times.
An EIS is required for the project’s Darwin TIVIAN processing facility, with the EPA requesting additional information on 23 matters.
This includes Mount Peake’s site selection and justification process, wildlife corridor, benchmarking of emissions, water demand and potential impact on aircraft.
TNG stated the matters raised were not previously required in the EIS draft.
The TIVIAN processing facility is being assessed under “transitional arrangements” due to the territory’s updated Environment Protection Act 2019 that was introduced last year.
Guidelines supporting the act are still under development by the Northern Territory Government.
The company stated the timeframe to complete the additional work will be confirmed in coming weeks.
TNG managing director and chief executive officer Paul Burton said the company is aiming to keep its timeframe on track.
“TNG has undertaken a vast amount of work for both the draft EIS and the supplement to the draft EIS, including more than 40 technical reports, assessments, management plans and policies,” he said.
“Our team is working to evaluate all options to ensure we achieve an expeditious final permitting resolution in a timeframe that matches the stage of development of the Mount Peake Project, for which the FEED Study is being finalised in preparation for project financing discussions.”
Burton said the company is confident a resolution will be achieved.
“We will provide further updates on these deliberations in the near future, however given the scale and importance of the Mount Peake Project to the Northern Territory we remain confident that we can achieve a resolution that ensures the responsible development of this world-scale project for the benefit of all stakeholders,” he said.
The TIVIAN processing technology is expected to overcome the limitations of conventional titanomagnetite processing.
TNG is aiming to produce 100,000 tonnes of titanium pigment, 6000 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide and 500,000 tonnes of iron oxide per year at Mount Peake.
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