PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Galan Lithium is looking at options to expand the production at its proposed Hombre Muerto West project, in Argentina, as well as to decrease capital expenditure and operating costs.

A preliminary economic assessment of the project in late 2020 found that the project could support the production of 20 000 t/y of battery grade lithium carbonate equivalent over a mine life of 40 years.

The study estimated that the project would require an initial capital investment of $439-million, which included a 30% contingency, with cash costs of production estimated at $3 518/t of lithium carbonate.

However, Galan MD Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega told the Paydirt Battery Minerals conference, in Perth, that the company is investigating the potential to increase the production rate at Hombre Muerto West.

Furthermore, the preliminary economic assessment was performed at a time when the Del Condor concession did not form part of the tenement holdings, however, with the concession now granted, Galan has the potential to extend and add ponds to the north of the project area, meaning a potential reduction in capital costs.

The company is also looking at reducing operating cost, Vargas said, through the reduction in the consumption of reagents and an increase in recoveries.

Furthermore, Vargas said that the company earlier this year also announced that its high-grade lithium chloride concentrate had increased by 25% compared with the preliminary economic assessment study, giving the company the flexibility to place its lithium for downstream products anywhere in the world without the burden of high logistics costs, a high carbon footprint, or waste management.

“Galan is evaluating the commercial potential in the global market for its high grade lithium chloride concentrate as feed for lithium battery products,” he said.

“We have a way to get to the market quick, to become a producer, and we won’t have to be dependent on anyone to do so.”

Galan is hoping to start feasibility studies into the Hombre Muerto West project by the second quarter of next year, along with a pilot plant.