Crushing, XRT Sorting & Gravity Plant Activities Due to the technologies used at Mt Carbine, the Company constantly works to achieve a circular economy approach to production and the use of its inert waste materials which can be converted into by-products. With the Company currently mining and processing the historic Low-Grade Stockpile (“LGS”), there is a variety of materials available in this regard. Oversize rock is used for various products such as armour rock, gabion stone or mattress rock. The Process Flow, shown on the previous page, allows the Company to make use of the inert sorter waste material for the production of various aggregate materials and the Gravity Plant tailings are able to be used as a manufactured sand that is then sold as is or mixed into various road bases or blended material combinations for the Company’s quarry business. Through the completion of the Early Works program, the Company is now able to crush and screen material at much higher throughput capacities and pump the fines material directly into the Gravity Plant. This plant was installed to overcome the challenges of the Far North Queensland wet season which has extremely heavy rainfall over a condensed period of time. The new high-volume wet screening application mitigates production challenges surrounding this by pumping tungsten carrying fines and dust to the Gravity Plant, reducing material handling requirements, mobile machinery usage and minimising material build up on conveyors, chutes and throughout all plants, reducing down time for clean up. Newly installed screening and crushing plant. Prior to the Early Works upgrade, crushing and screening was done through mobile processing equipment, the use of all electric equipment for this circuit will increase operational availability going forward and reduce maintenance cost and operating cost through reduced diesel consumption and hauling of -6mm material as it is now pumped through a pipeline. The wet screening application also allows the use of poly panels for the screen media which has a much higher life span in comparison to conventional steel mesh screen decks. The operations team now run the upgraded Crushing and Screening Gravity Plant on a 24/7 basis and as the primary crushing and screening method for the downstream XRT Sorters and Gravity Plant processing operations. During the 2021/22 financial year, the Mt Carbine XRT Sorting and Gravity Plants operated on a continuous basis of ramping up production outputs from Mt Carbine. The operation has progressed from processing primarily historic tailings material with trials of LGS fines and sorter concentrate to currently processing primarily LGS and sorter concentrate. Ongoing plant improvements were completed on the Gravity Plant targeting increased running time capabilities, higher overall tungsten recoveries and higher-grade concentrate product. Over the period, EQR was able to successfully secure a second XRT Sorter for the Mt Carbine operations making use of the AMGC Grant awarded to the Company in January 2022. This allowed the acceleration of the installation of a second XRT Sorter into the operations allowing for doubling of the throughput capacity of the sorting operations. Operating and Financial Review continued 16 EQ Resources Limited Annual Report 2022
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