PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals on Monday said that a final investment decision (FID) on its mid-stream demonstration plant in joint venture (JV) with fellow listed Calix is due by the end of July.

The JV partners had originally targeted an FID by the end of the 2023 financial year.

Pilbara said on Monday that since the JV agreement was signed in November last year, significant progress had been made on the detailed front-end engineering design of the proposed demonstration plant, and that the parties had agreed to bring forward certain project expenditure which had initially been planned for after the FID, to ensure the delivery schedule and development of the project could continue unimpeded.

The mid-stream demonstration plant at Pilbara’s Pilgangoora project is expected to deliver a superior value-added lithium product enabling lower product cost, reduced carbon energy intensity, and reduction of waste product logistics.

Pilbara Minerals holds a 55% interest in the JV and Calix holds the remainder, with each party funding their share of operating and capital costs and Calix licensing their patented technology and calcination know-how into the JV. Pilbara Minerals will manage the demonstration plant at the Pilgangoora project, overseeing both the construction and operational phases.

The development of the demonstration plant is supported by A$20-million in Australian government funding announced under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI). The MMI Grant Agreement between Pilbara Minerals and the Australian government was executed on  April 28 and an initial payment of A$8-million toward the project was received by Pilbara Minerals on May 31.

Successful demonstration of the mid-stream process may lead to a commercial scale plant being built as part of Pilbara Minerals' future mid-stream strategy and to future commercialisation of the calcination technology, with the JV licensing the technology to the global spodumene processing industry.