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All your ASX lithium news for Tuesday, January 10

A UK lithium player has nabbed a slice of the WA State Governments Industrial Lands Panel’s $70 billion for seven projects in the Boodarie and Ashburton North Strategic Industrial Areas (SIAs).

Subsidiary of UK-listed Alkemy Capital, Tees Valley Lithium, has been allocated land in the Boodarie SIA, about 4 kilometres west of South Hedland and 12 kilometres south of Port Hedland for its lithium sulphate (LSM) refinery.

Partnering with Australian hard rock lithium miners

“Building the Port Hedland LSM refinery will provide Australian spodumene producers with a complete mid-stream lithium refining solution with direct access to the European market through TVL’s Lithium Hydroxide refinery at the Wilton International Chemicals Park in Teesside, UK,” Alkemy and Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) Director Sam Quinn said.

“This new Pilbara to Teesside supply chain will embody the new critical minerals supply chains possible under the recently signed free trade agreement between Australia and the UK and leverage the competitive strengths of Australia in mining and critical minerals processing and the UK in chemical refining.

“Importantly, the Port Hedland LSM refinery will bring major value-adding to the Pilbara region, with significant multiplier benefits for the local community and the State of Western Australia, whilst reducing the carbon footprint of the end-to-end lithium battery cell supply chain to meet new European emissions standards.”

40,000 tpa spodumene for Train 1

Train 1 of the Port Hedland LSM refinery is set to process spodumene from Australian lithium miners to produce 40,000 tpa of primary LSM, with Trains 2-4 adding a further 120,000 tpa primary LSM production in future expansions.

Construction of Train 1 of TVL’s LHM processing facility at the Wilton International Chemicals Park in Teesside, UK, the first of 4 trains planned for the site, is due to commence in 2023.

Initial production of 24,000 tpa of battery-grade LHM is planned for 2025.

And once completed, all 4 trains will produce a total of 96,000 tpa LHM, representing around 15% of Europe’s projected demand by 2030.

The Port Hedland LSM plant, together with TVL’s planned LHM processing facility at the “Wilton International Chemicals Park in Teesside, UK, will deliver a low carbon, de-risked lithium supply chain between Australian spodumene producers and the burgeoning European lithium battery cell market,” the company says.