General Discussion Topics, page-124064

I am all for SYAQ having downstream capability, if for no other reason than to release us from the crippling OTA with PLL.

Having said that, I want to be sure that we don’t replace one crippling set of circumstances with another.

What I am saying, is that we should be 100% certain that we have ticked all boxes before we commit money and resources into the completion and commissioning of the plant.

To give me some idea of the timeline, (if not the cost), it is worth looking at a similar project that went through this process to completion.

Back in March 2012, Galaxy Resources commissioned a 17,000 tpy LiCO plant in Jiangsu, China.

Seventeen months later, in August 2013 it got output up to 678 tonnes for the month.

Annualised, this represents about half of nameplate.

In April 2014, Galaxy sold the LiCO plant to Tianqi for $US230 million.It appears they needed to do this because the carbonate plant was consuming cash that was needed to develop their brine resources in South America.

It seems, that to bring one of these refineries up to it’s full potential, you must have very deep pockets and lot’s of patience.

I think there is a lesson to be learnt from the Galaxy experience.