Australian lithium company studies Sudbury for processing plant: Lepidico's battery-grade lithium production facility could bring 70 jobs.

AuthorRoss, Ian
PositionMining

Sudbury's consolation prize for missing out on the Ring of Fire ferrochrome smelter could be a lithium processing plant.

Lepidico, an Australian lithium development company, is evaluating two industrial properties in Sudbury for a chemical plant that produces lithium carbonate, a key ingredient in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries.

The Brisbane-headquartered company is having plant design, engineering and baseline environmental work done at two undisclosed properties in preparation of a Phase One production plant.

The 36,000-square-metre plant would produce 5,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually and provide employment for 70.

The operation would be a hub of activity with lithium concentrate arriving in Sudbury by rail and truck from mining operations in Canada and overseas. The processed product would be exported to battery manufacturers in Asia.

If the permitting and approvals process goes smoothly, the plant could be in production by 2020.

Down the road, Lepidico is studying the construction of a 10,000-tonnes-per-year plant.

The company is spending the reminder of this year and into 2019 working on a plant feasibility study, securing permits and sources of lithium supply, and raising financing for the plant, estimated last year to be US$45 million, but for a smaller plant.

The location of the sites isn't being disclosed pending the signing of commercial agreements.

"It's premature to say at this point," said Joe Walsh, Lepidico's managing director, who moved from Brisbane to Toronto this year where the company has set up a downtown office.

According to company documents, the preferred property is a private industrial park that has all the power, water, gas and rail connections that the company wants. The property owner is working with Lepidico to see if they can tap into government funds to upgrade the power and gas connections.

On financing for the plant, Walsh said other similar projects have been funded through a combination of pre-paid off-take (supply) agreements from battery manufacturers, government grants, and equity. Galaxy Resources, a $1.2 billion Australian-listed company, took a 12 per cent stake in Lepidico last year.

The backbone of Lepidico's growth strategy is a patented, home-grown technology, called L-Max, which extracts lithium from lithium-bearing hard rock called lepidolite.

Lepidolite is in growing demand for conversion into lithium carbonate.

Walsh said five or six years ago, the annual growth in the...

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