Name of the Project
Rincon lithium project.

Location
Salta province, Argentina.

Project Owner/s
The project is a joint venture between Argosy Minerals and pre-eminent lithium processing expert, Pablo Alurralde.

Project Description
Rincon is located within the world-renowned “Lithium Triangle” – host to the world’s largest lithium resources.

The project will be completed in stages.

Stage 1 involved the construction of an industrial-scale pilot plant, which is operational.

Stage 2 includes the construction of a 2 000 t/y lithium carbonate equivalent processing plant.
 

Stage 3 will be based on the pending successful development and production from Stage 2.

The Argosy base case envisages a 10 000 t/y operation with a 16.5-year mine life.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $399-million and internal rate of return of 53%, with a payback of 2.1 years.

Capital Expenditure
The initial capital cost in the base case is estimated at $140.9-million. The preliminary economic assessment financials exclude Rincon’s potential to produce an estimated 35 000 t/y of potash and 25 000 t/y of magnesium hydroxide as by-products.

Planned Start/End Date
First lithium carbonate production has been targeted for the first quarter of 2021.

Latest Developments
Argosy Minerals has been granted approval for the development of the next stage of work at its Rincon lithium project.

The government of Salta and its regulatory bodies have approved Argosy’s environmental-impact report (EIR) for the development of a 2 000 t/y lithium process plant and subsequent lithium production operations at Rincon, along with all associated work.

The company will now further escalate ongoing discussions with several potential capital providers for the processing plant capital requirements, with the EIR approval removing a major hurdle towards securing funding.

The construction of the processing plant is expected to cost about $14.3-million, and will take 12 to 15 months to complete.

Argosy is scheduling a preliminary trial cargo comprising about 5 t of high-quality lithium carbonate produced from its industrial-scale pilot plant operations for the first quarter of this year, delivering into a sales agreement executive with Mitsubishi Corporation in March last year.

 
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Primero Group, AQ2, and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (PEA).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Argosy, tel +61 8 6188 8181 or email admin@argosyminerals.com.au.