The FFX DFS makes no mention of “battery grade”, not even the market for BG lithium hydroxide / carbonate rates a distinct mention
it makes one mention of chemical grade attribution in JORC table.
In JORC table section the company claims the metallurgical process for Goulamina is standard practice. But how can that be? From hard rock ore to WOF “froth flotation” looks quite novel, as far as I can see among established peers. Tailings can not be considered standard practice in my estimate. And, to top it off, as I’ve said if its battery grade, then there should be no problem pulling out lithia testwork data (lithium sulphate mono hydrate/oxide samples) from the downstream scoping study as it uses the same highly specialised morphology SC6, as in MET tests and so DFS assumptions.
The company hasn’t made room for penalties. I mean is it standard to ship 350ktpa Spod at wetness @ 12-15%? Fast markets is conceptualisinf <10%. I suppose dewatering will happen as the ship sails.
yes yes...optimisation for transport was mentioned but this should not read as an afterthought?? We are talking serious bottleneck with dewatering ‘fine sand’ consistency spod. hopefully they solve it. 35000 liters minimum per annum for spod management, in a water scarce environment
What if Fe is over 1% on occasion (head grade is not static by any means m, it swings? Does the cut off 0% really work? Greenbushes has a cut off of 0.7% for their tailings operations. And it would be comparable to FFX...recovery rate 70% for their tailings/—all from the most experienced experts in Spodumene Concentrate production.
despite uncertainties in process flow, the key issue is Fe, FFX had to go the more complex and open intensive route of WOF. The CRIMM’s purported betrrr magnetic separators is novel by company’s own estimate. And in my view the ore is milled to 100-150 for downstream process amenability beneficiation. It’s quite clear that the low energy consumption calcinatir needs a fine ore. Could the company dial in a larger grind size for a customer? I suspect so.
one last thing for this post, why no mention of dust control in DFS? Greenbushes/ BDA, rates “dust” a mention for its proposed Tailings plant ( source: HKEX IPO PDF in TLH forum, uploaded by your truly)
FFX Price at posting:
26.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
