JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Emerging lithium producer Galaxy Resources has received the environmental approval for its Jiangsu lithium carbonate plant, in China.

The final environment approval report, which was approved by the Jiangsu Province Environmental Bureau, was an important step toward full project approval for the company’s Jiangsu lithium carbonate plant, the ASX-listed company said on Friday.

It said that the Galaxy Jiangsu plant was expected to have a small environmental footprint. Process water requirements would be met through consumption of process steam condensate, energy efficiency would be enhanced through the use of waste heat where possible, and liquid effluents would be minimal.

Galaxy stated that the residue remaining after lithium has been extracted from the spodumene raw materials would be sold to the building industry as a raw material and the sodium sulphate that was generated as a byproduct of the lithium carbonate would be sold to the detergent and textile industries.

The environmental approval was a prerequisite for the assessment of the safety and the energy applications by separate expert review panels. Those applications were now being assessed.

The project application report (PAR) would be submitted for approval once those applications have been approved. Based on the anticipation of prompt assessments, the PAR will be submitted in November for assessment in early December.

The business licence for Galaxy Lithium (Jiangsu) could only be granted upon the completion of the PAR assessment.

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