PROJECT FOCUS
There is currently great interest in lithium projects( see the amount of news in recent editions of International Mining Project News). This growing interest in lithium supply is driven by shortages currently being experienced in certain market segments, related to an increase in demand for lithium in rechargeable batteries; principally for electric vehicles.
At the recent Industrial Minerals Lithium conference in May it was clear from the agenda and the discussions held with various participants that the main concern of the industry is on the rate of future supply growth. Avalon Advanced Materials’ Pierre Neatby, VP, Sales and Marketing STAES:“ Will the major producers( Albemarle Corp, SQM, FMC Corp and Tianqi Group) be able to rapidly expand their production, or will new producers need to emerge to keep pace with demand growth?
“ Many of the presenters suggested that numerous new brines projects in South America will be challenged to achieve commercial production quickly or at all. The Salar de Atacama that SQM and Albemarle have been producing from is exceptional- not all salars in Chile, Argentina or Bolivia are of this high quality. High magnesium levels in many salars, for example, make extraction of lithium difficult and more expensive, and government restrictions on water use in these arid regions may create additional challenges. Other lithium resources including‘ hard rock’ pegmatite deposits in other parts of the world are becoming increasingly attractive alternatives.” A panel of experts( market analysts and participants) agreed that demand growth for lithium will be steady and prices for lithium carbonate would be strong over the next few years:
Plant construction at Mt Marion, Western Australia
Lithium stampede
John Chadwick looks at some current lithium projects attracting interest n Joe Lowry, President, Global Lithium believes the price for lithium carbonate outside China will exceed $ 10,000 / t to 2025 n John Kanellitsas, Vice Chairman, Lithium America, sees average pricing at $ 7,500 / t n Anthony Tse, MD, Galaxy Resources, forecast
$ 10,000-13,000 / t to 2025 n Jon Hykawy, President, Stormcrow Capital, has a forecast of $ 7,000-8,000 / t One of the biggest recent announcements in lithium was that Galaxy Resources and General Mining have agreed a A $ 217 million merger to consolidate their lithium operations, creating +$ 700 million diversified global lithium company with a large wholly-owned portfolio of hard rock and brine based lithium assets located in multiple jurisdictions. Its leading growth profile is underpinned by Mt Cattlin production, the development of the Sal de Vida brine project in Argentina and James Bay hard rock project in Quebec, Canada
Martin Rowley, Chairman of Galaxy, will remain Chairman of the Board of the combined group. Anthony Tse, Managing Director of Galaxy will remain Managing Director of the combined group and Michael Fotios, Executive Chairman of General Mining, is proposed to become a Director on the Board of the combined group.
Rowley:“ The arrangement struck between Galaxy and General Mining has enabled the recommissioning of the Mt Cattlin mine, drawing on General Mining ' s financial and technical resources, with Mt Cattlin now poised to deliver first production of spodumene to contracted buyers in the third quarter of calendar 2016.
Fotios:“ General Mining and Galaxy are an excellent and natural fit, given existing joint venture owned assets, complementary project
development and operational expertise, as well as aligned, success driven cultures. Our ability to capture future growth opportunities in the rapidly evolving lithium market will be significantly enhanced by this merger.”
Galaxy Resources is currently advancing plans to develop the Sal de Vida lithium and potash brine project in Argentina, which is situated in the Lithium Triangle, a region where Chile, Argentina and Bolivia meet, and presently accounts for 60 % of global lithium production. Sal de Vida is a proven high quality resource with excellent promise as a future low cost lithium producer.
The company also owns the Mt Cattlin spodumene mine near Ravensthorpe in Western Australia and the James Bay lithium pegmatite project in Quebec, Canada.
Mt Cattlin
At full capacity, Mt Cattlin, located 2 km north of the town of Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, can process ore at a rate of 1 Mt / y with lithium oxide concentrate production of 137,000 t / y and 56,000 lb / y of contained tantalum( TA 2O 5).
In a resource estimate issued in March 2011, Mt Cattlin’ s total contained lithium oxide( Li 2O) resource was 197,000 t, the Measured and Indicated resource was 13.8 Mt and total resource ore 18.18 Mt. The current life potential of the Mt Cattlin mine is 18 years, including inferred resources.
The mine operations include open-pit mining of a flat lying pegmatite orebody. The flat lying nature of the orebody allows for a constant strip ratio once the ore is uncovered. Mining is carried out using excavator and truck operations, delivering to a conventional crushing and HMS gravity recovery circuit. Contract mining is used for grade control drilling and earthmoving operations( drilling, blasting, load, haul and ancillary work) for the mining operation. The pit design encompasses existing Measured and Indicated resources and has been defined as the Dowling pit.
The processing plant lies to the west of the Dowling pit and consists of a four-stage crushing circuit producing a-6 mm product from ROM ore at a treatment rate of 1 Mt / y. The crushing plant provides feed to a fine ore bin and this fine ore bin feeds the concentrator on a continuous 24 hour per day basis.
The concentrator consists of reflux classifier( to remove mica flakes), dual size steam, two stages of Heavy Media Separation( HMS) cyclones, with mechanical attritioning of the intermediate sink product. The final spodumene concentrate is stacked on a pad adjacent to the plant area, drained and prepared for trucking to port.
Coarse waste HMS plant float material is collected in a surge bin and then trucked to
10 International Mining | AUGUST 2016