PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A definitive feasibility study (DFS) on ASX-listed Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley lithium/tantalum project, in Western Australia, is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of this year.
The DFS follows on from a prefeasibility study (PFS) completed in the fourth quarter of last year, into establishing a two-million-tonne-a-year mining operation to produce some 350 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate over a mine life of 40 years, and a downstream scoping study to produce either lithium hydroxide or lithium sulphate on-site.
The PFS had estimated that the mining project would require a capital investment of A$325-million, and would generate a post-tax net present value of A$1.12-billion and an internal rate of return of 37%, with life-of-mine free cash flows of A$4.8-billion.
For its part, the scoping study demonstrated the financial upside to an integrated mining, processing and refining operation to produce lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM), or lithium sulphate monohydrate (LSM).
The downstream scoping study estimated that an integrated LHM operation would require a total capital spend of A$1.1-billion, while an integrated LSM operation would require a capital spend of A$0.9-billion.
At steady state production, both the LHM and the LSM projects would produce at a rate of 430 000 t/y of tantalum, with the LHM refinery to have a design production rate of 58 000 t/y, while the LSM refinery would have a production rate of 88 000 t/y.
Liontown on Monday told shareholders that in addition to the DFS work, the company has also undertaken additional geotechnical and water exploration drilling to acquire data identified by the PFS, which is required to complete the DFS.