Lithium exploration and development company Bacanora Lithium continues to progress all its work streams, despite the timetable for the engineering work at its Sonora lithium project, in Mexico, having been impacted on by delays in Asia and North America because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Completion is now scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
Ganfeng Lithium, like all Chinese companies, was severely impacted on by the travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government to slow the spread of Covid-19 during February and early March.
Although these restrictions are now being lifted, the return to work has been slow, Bacanora said on Monday.
Ganfeng's main lithium processing plant at Xinyu is resuming operations and lithium production is building up.
Because of this slow return to work, the Ganfeng test plant and project team have also resumed work on the Sonora flow sheet optimisation and process engineering, and while some weeks of engineering have been lost, completion of engineering and equipment selection is now scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
Ganfeng will, subsequently, provide Bacanora with an engineering, procurement and construction-style engineering proposal to produce downstream battery-grade lithium products from the Sonora lithium plant.
This schedule remains under regular review in relation to the ongoing Covid-19 situation and shareholders will be updated regularly as the engineering process develops, Bacanora confirmed.
"Bacanora and its partners have, like all companies, been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak and the resultant knock-on impact on businesses and the wider stock market. The health and safety of our employees, partners and local communities is without doubt our top priority during these uncertain times,” Bacanora chairperson Mark Hohnen and CEO Peter Secker commented in the statement.
Hohnen and Secker added that the company remained well capitalized, with more than $47-million cash in the bank and, together with its supportive shareholders and partners, “it is well positioned to withstand the continued effects of Covid-19".