Name of the Project
Falchani lithium project.

Location
The Macusani plateau, in the Puno district of south-eastern Peru.

Project Owner/s
American Lithium.

Project Description
Falchani is the sixth-biggest, hard-rock lithium deposit in the world.

An independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has demonstrated the project’s ability to become a large, long-life producer of low-cost, high-quality and low-impurity battery-grade lithium carbonate.

The Falchani project is highly amenable for development using conventional openpit truck-and-shovel methods.

The base case, which encompasses the entire mineral resource estimate for the Falchani and Ocacasa 4 concessions, envisages the production of 63 000 t/y of battery-grade lithium carbonate over 33 years, increasing to 85 000 t/y at a steady-state throughput of six-million tonnes a year.

The PEA includes the construction of a 1 700 t/d sulphur-burning acid plant on site to produce, on average, 1 500 t/d of sulphuric acid. In subsequent phases, additional modules are added to meet expanded processing capacity.

The PEA also represents an alternative case, which includes only the mineral resources from the Falchani concession. The alternative case will use the same operating parameters, metal price and selling costs, and consists of an openpit mine and an associated processing facility, as well as on- and off-site infrastructure.

In this scenario, the project is projected to have a 26-year mine life, with Phase 1 having a milling rate of 1.5-million tonnes a year and Phase 2 three-million tonnes a year.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
At a base case of $12 000/t lithium carbonate, the project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $2.71-billion and an internal rate of return of 24.2%, with a payback of 4.3 years (undiscounted).

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital expenditure is estimated at $587-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The construction period has been scoped for 24 months.

Latest Developments
American Lithium has validated sulphate of potash (SoP) as a by-product of future lithium production at the Falchani project.

The importance of producing significant amounts of SoP from Falchani cannot be overstated, as it has the potential to make Peru self-sufficient for SoP fertilisers, American Lithium COO Laurence Stefan has said.

Recent shortages of fertilisers in Peru have resulted in SoP imports rising to more than 60 000 t/y.

Testing was completed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) laboratories in Sydney, Australia. The SoP produced by ANSTO from Falchani mineralisation comprises 45% potassium and 20% sulphur.

The current test programme at ANSTO builds on previous programmes, which have demonstrated the ability to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from the Falchani mineralisation.

The latest programme has pursued to modify the baseline flowsheet to allow for the recovery of SoP, and cesium and rubidium by-products.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
DRA, working with ANSTO Minerals, with input from M.Plan International (process flowsheet)

Contact Details for Project Information
American Lithium, tel +1 604 428 6128 or email Info@americanlithiumcorp.com.