PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The board of Talison Lithium have green-lit a A$516-million expansion of the Greenbushes lithium operation, in Western Australia.
The expansion will entail the construction of a new lithium concentrate plant capable of producing 520 000 t/y of chemical-grade lithium concentrate, a new crushing plant and the necessary infrastructure.
Talison said on Wednesday that the crushing plant would have sufficient capacity to support another similarly-sized chemical grade lithium concentration plant.
The expansion, along with debottlenecking of the existing lithium concentration plants, will increase the lithium concentrate production capacity at Greenbushes by 608 000 t/y, to around 1.95-milllion tonnes a year.
The latest expansion plans are in addition to the current A$320-million expansion under way at Greenbushes, which is some 90% complete, and which will take production capacity to 1.34-million tonnes a year.
“Greenbushes is a truly world-class mining operation with the capacity for significant expansion to underpin the lithium supply needs of our shareholders, Tianqi Lithium and Albemarle,” said Talison Lithium CEO Lorry Mignacca.
“In addition to the major investment by Talison in Greenbushes, the expanded lithium concentrate production at Greenbushes will underpin the development of world-class lithium hydroxide production plants in Western Australia, driven by Tianqi and Albemarle, underpinning a new value-adding and jobs-creating industry in this state.”
Albemarle, which holds a 49% stake in Talison, is planning a lithium hydroxide manufacturing plant, outside of Bunbury, capable of producing up to 100 000 t/y of lithium hydroxide monohydrate from five 20 000 t/y process trains and up to 1.1-million tonnes a year of tailings.
The construction of these trains will be staged over the next ten years with construction of the first trains planned to commence in 2018. The plant will process spodumene ore concentrate supplied from Greenbushes.
Tianqi, which holds a 51% stake in Talison, is constructing a 24 000 t/y lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana, just 40 km from Perth.
This plant will also be using feed from the Greenbushes mine, and is expected to start operations at the end of 2018.
Talison said on Wednesday that the work on the A$516-million expansion would start in the first quarter of 2019, and commissioning of the new lithium concentrate plant will start in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The company said that a second plant could possibly be commissioned in 2022, subject to the timing of final board approvals.
Talison has already lodged the necessary regulatory approvals for the expansion, and is in discussion with contractors to allow site work to start in the first quarter of 2019.
The construction phase is expected to require a workforce of about 300, and once the plant is fully operational, a further 250 new permanent staff will be employed.
Private-equity backed Global Advanced Metals (GAM) is in the midst of a court tussle with Talison over the expansion plans at Greenbushes, claiming that it will unfairly impact its mineral rights.
GAM owns the rights to tantalum and other minerals produced at Greenbushes, and has requested that the courts halt mine expansion plans to ensure that its rights are secure.
Trial dates have been set for October 16 and 31.
GAM said on Wednesday that Talison’s expansion of lithium mining and processing at Greenbushes, without complying with its contractual obligations to GAM, threatens to sterilise and waste tantalum resources at Greenbushes.
GAM CEO Andrew O’Donovan said the company acknowledges the significant benefit lithium production has for the Western Australian economy and is supportive of its continuing development.
“However, contractually the expansion of Talison’s lithium production cannot be at the expense of GAM’s rights to its tantalum and all other minerals at Greenbushes,” O’Donovan said.