Name of the Project
Falchani lithium project.

Location
Puno, south-western Peru. 

Project Owner/s
Vancouver-based exploration and development company American Lithium Corp.
 
Project Description
The preliminary economic assessment (PEA) updated in 2024 showed that with low initial capital expenditure, the project can potentially become a substantial, low-cost, long-life producer of high-purity lithium carbonate equivalent and a producer of sulphate of potash and cesium sulphate by-products, alongside lithium carbonate equivalent.
 
The project is highly amenable for development by conventional openpit, drill-and-blast, and truck-and-shovel methods.

Envisaged is a mine and processing operation producing 2.64-million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent over a life-of-mine of 34 years.

Average steady-state production is estimated at 23 145 t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent in Phase 1, 45 084 t/y in Phase 2 and 72 624 t/y in Phase 3.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The pretax net present value is estimated at $8.41-billion, at an 8% discount rate. The pretax internal rate of return is estimated at 40.7%. Initial payback is estimated at 2.5 years.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 is estimated at $681-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
American Lithium Corporation has fully commissioned and started operating its Falchani lithium pilot plant, with the operating systems performing as expected.

The pilot plant is being advanced by consultancy TECMMINE, in Lima, which is helping to derisk the Falchani project by validating the flowsheet at scale.

The plant is achieving average lithium extraction rates of 88.7%, which is well above the 80% recovery rate expected in the 2024 PEA.

With all flow sheet equipment now installed and testing, American Lithium is advancing toward full end-to-end flowsheet validation at scale in a continuous mode, to validate the bench-scale results.

The pilot plant is expected to run continuously at target rates for three months to process between 6 t and 10 t of ore from Falchani.

The pilot plant results will ultimately feed into future feasibility work on the project.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
DRA Global.

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