General Comments & Banter, page-12974

Hi Tooler... I don't think I have the necessary expertise on lithium brine evap to answer with any authority, but here goes what I think:
- I agree with your maths. If AGY have advised the market that the current 38ha of ponds can support 1,500 - 2,000 tpa, and applying a straight divide and multiply principle:
- 38 ha support an average of 1,750 tpa
- 10,000 tpa divided by 1,750 tp = ~5.7
- 38ha times 5.7 = ~217 ha to support 10,000 tpa

As far as claims from other posters for the need for larger ponds, I dare say there are many factors that come into play that impact on pond output, with the obvious issues being the starting brine quality/grade, the local weather conditions (rain/evap rates, etc) and the location of the ponds (on the salar/elevated off the salar, etc).... and then the other obvious factor is the pond design.

IMO, pond design and location are two notable points with AGY's ponds:
- They are located in an elevated position above the "shore" line of the salar. This has proven itself to be a big advantage during rain and flooding events, hence very little loss or impact to brine concentration.
- The pond construction operates in successive/cascading evap ponds, with a larger pond's contents being moved progressively down to smaller ponds, enabling the large pond to be refilled... I assume that this design approach is compacting the evaporation efficiency of the ponds, essentially meaning a smaller area of ponds can still achieve a higher output rate.

In other words... not all pond designs are equally as efficient.

Anyway - like I said, I'm no expert on the subject, but that's my two bits worth