General Discussion Topics, page-119008

No I don’t know the cost, the best I can offer is to look at what Mineral Resources Ltd has done and what they are proposing to do.

In a nutshell, they have completely given up on becoming a LiOH producer, (which is what they were going to do with Albemarle at Kemerton WA).

Instead they are now intending to become a mid-stream producer of lithium sulphate.

Presumably, they have crunched the numbers and worked out that they will be better off going down this route.

The prime reason for doing this is the relative ease to produce Li2SO4 as it is to produce LiOH.

Other benefits are that concentration levels are higher ~x6 over spodumene concentrate, (cheaper to transport) and ~60% of waste and most of the impurities remains at the mine site.

Ken Brinsden exPLS, predicts mid-stream products will eventually supplant spodumene concentrate as the medium for transporting feed material to refineries that produce battery grade chemicals.

If two of the heavyweights of the industry are saying this, who are we to argue that they are not right.