TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Quebec-focused lithium project developer Canada Lithium on Friday said commissioning activities at its flagship Quebec lithium mine and plant were proceeding according to its revised schedule, and that the company was on track to restart product shipments to Tewoo, in China, at the end of the month.
The TSX-listed company said mining operations continued at a reduced level and about 100 000 t of ore remained on the stockpile at the crusher. The mining operation was scheduled to resume at the end of the month.
The crushing, grinding and concentrator circuits were fully operational and Canada Lithium said the ramp-up to design capacity could be achieved quickly as the hydro-metallurgical commissioning advanced.
The kiln was operating at its design temperature of about 1 000 °C and the kiln throughput was being systematically increased to over 50%.
The hydro-metallurgical circuit commissioning was also ongoing, including the sulphate, neutralisation, lithium carbonate and purification circuits. The planned upgrades to the carbon dioxide process had also been completed and lithium carbonate product currently in the system would be processed through the new circuit.
The Val-d’Or operation will produce about 20 000 t/y of battery-grade lithium carbonate. Canada Lithium has a five-year offtake agreement for at least 12 000 t/y with China’s Tewoo-ERDC and an offtake deal for up to 5 000 t/y with Japan’s Marubeni Corp.