JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australia’s Plymouth Minerals and joint venture (JV) partner Valoriza Mineria have selected a commercial and known sulphate calcine/roast and fresh water leach processing route for the San Jose lithium/tin deposit, in Spain.
The selection of a processing route allows the JV partners to determine an estimation of operating costs, the largest component of which is the processing costs.
Integrating historical and recent testwork information, the processing cost has been estimated to be between $3 600/t and $4 400/t battery grade lithium carbonate (LC).
“This is an excellent result and broadly better than expectations based on public research and public, historic studies at San Jose,” Plymouth said on Thursday.
Sulphite calcine/roast mixes mined lithium-bearing material with a sulphate and then heats it to about 830 °C. Lithium is leached into solution using fresh water and the lithium-bearing liquor is then processing using evaporation, precipitation and purification to produce a refined battery-grade LC. In comparison, commercial production from spodumene concentrates requires heating to more than 1 100 °C and then baking in acid to 200 °C prior to leaching lithium into solution.
The San Jose deposit contains more than 1.3-million tonnes of LC. The JV partners are proposing to mine 1.25-million tonnes a year of ore to feed a beneficiation plant to produce 15 000 t/y of battery-grade LC on site.
The selection of a processing route forms part of the technical work required for the submission of a mining licence application (MLA) for San Jose. Plymouth said that the MLA would be lodged in early October.
Plymouth will earn its 50% interest in San Jose, assuming expenditure of at least €1.5-million, when the MLA is submitted.