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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Kidman Mining is hoping to find buyers for between 75% and 80% of its share of production from the $601-million integrated Mt Holland project, in Western Australia, to assist in discussions with financiers.
MD and CEO Martin Donohue told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that both offtake and debt financing discussions were under way.
The integrated Mt Holland project is expected to produce spodumene concentrate from the mine and concentrator project, which would then be transported to the Kwinana lithium refinery and processed to produce some 45 254 t/y of battery grade lithium hydroxide.
Over an estimated project life of 47 years, the integrated Mt Holland project would deliver earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $22-billion, and average revenues of $713-million a year.
The project would be operated by a joint venture vehicle Covalent Lithium, which is 50% held by Kidman and 50% by Chilean partner Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile.
Donohue said on Thursday that the integrated prefeasibility study is set for release in the fourth quarter of this year, while the defintive feasibility study for the integrated project will follow in the first half of 2019. A final investment decision on the project is expected shortly thereafter.