As planned, NRW Holdings started the earthworks after Altura received all required approvals.

NRW was awarded the $110 million mine development and services contract last month.

Altura said the start of earthworks put it on track to achieve first sales in early 2018.

The 70-person accommodation village has also been commissioned to house construction personnel.

The Pilgangoora development comprises a 1.4 million tonne per annum plant, to process as much as 1.54Mtpa, to produce an annual average of 219,000 tonnes of 6% spodumene concentrate at total cash costs of $315.90 per wet metric tonne.

The 2016 definitive feasibility study returned a post-tax NPV of $280 million, at a 10% discount rate, an IRR of 46.7%, and a payback period of 2.1 years.

Pre-tax annual cashflow is forecast to be $80.6 million over the 13.2-year life of mine, while revenue would be just over $2 billion.

Altura is yet to make a final investment decision as funding is yet to be secured.

The company expects to fund the development via a mix of debt and equity, which will be partially covered by J&R Optimum’s recent $41.6 million investment.

Altura was last week admitted to the All Ordinaries index.

Its shares rose by half a cent this morning to 16.5c.