Although no one was hurt in Wednesday's "operational incident," Codelco said it had launched an investigation to determine the cause.

The company is working with the University of Nevada and the Great Basin College in Elko to develop mining-centred programs.

Second-quarter lithium sales nearly tripled due to rising prices of the electric vehicle battery metal.

e miner said it has the second largest nickel sulphide resource base globally, based on its land holding in the Agnew-Wiluna belt in Western Australia.

The PEA outlines primarily an underground block cave mining operation supplemented with a small open pit, and is planned to operate for 39 years with a peak mill feed production of 170,000 t/d.

The Mt Weld mine has deposits of rare earths elements neodymium and praseodymium, which are in high demand for making magnets used in electric vehicles and wind energy generation.

 Micromine Pitram will be deployed at Sunrise Dam and Tropicana in August 2022.