Mate, I was talking to
@Process1 just recently. He says everybody involved in plant design and construction of KV project is now amazed with the plants smooth operation and progress of ramp up. it's amazing. I'd like to thank to Lycopodium from here that they did a great job. We have been luck to have our board member from start Craig Williams (now retired) who was also the director of Lycopodium. He did all the design work.
LTR called this plant as 2nd (or maybe 3rd) generation of lithium plants. Its design was unique. The whole-ore-floatation (WOF) design was applied. WOF is an old process flow but we have made a new version of it. LTR is keeping it a secret.
The plant design is not involving many machines. It has a simple circuit but with very carefully selected high end machines. Being able to use the SAG mill because of our highly brittle ore type gave us a big advantage of consistent ore particle size which is very important in lithium spod concentrate production. (as you know we have no DMS circuit)
Because of having a simple plant design our ramp up process is going very well. In fact they are ramping up very quickly, and saying we are in full production now.
Simple plant design is important because there is only key machines no add-ons. We have all the spares for everything in stock. For example in Greenbushes plant there are so many add-ons and modifications, you can't believe how complex it is. The ore being sent to the circuit but part of it comes back and goes to another ball mill. Then returns to the circuit again. The best recovery rate they can get from the CGP1 is 75%. The CGP2 can't go over 67%. They won't try i anymore. And they could reached to 67% after years of work. All wrong designs, or old and primitive designs.
Yes you are right that the name plate capacity is around 500kt. Monthly 40kt.
The management said they produced over 10kt so far but they didn't say the exact number. They said they passed 10kt. Be careful here
. I think they probably will reach to total of 40kt end of this month. It's going very well.
$40kt per month is not much for this plant either. It's design is for 700kt/annually. Nearly 60kt per month. 40kt is even 2/3 of it.
I don't remember what TO said about the time for reaching the nameplate capacity but my estimation until June 30, 2025 is 300kt in 11 months. 27kt per month. it'd be enough for us.
Also TO may not be sure about how the would ramp up. Maybe he is surprised too. But I know now that everyone is amazed. All of the main contractors included.
Therefore TO's saying " it will take 12-15 months to optimise the circuit" would be very conservative. I believe it will happen in 6 months time, no later than that.
The recovery rate of 70% which TO mentioned is also very high if you consider what I said about the GB plant recovery rates CGP1: 75% and CGP2: 67% even though their feed grades are higher than 2.1%.
I believe 70% would be great for first 6 months but our target is 78%-82% which is the highest in the industry.
If you are trying to calculate the possible cash flow numbers from a different route, you can use the number I used or chose your own.
My main target would be just to cover operational costs (all-in-sustained) maybe little profit until end of June 30, 2025. Then our costs per unit will go down significantly as the production increases and lithium price recovery definitely starts if not earlier.
The poor recovery rates for both plants of Greenbushes.Btw, you can make your own research about Greenbushes mine problems and defects from the link below. See the poor recovery rates for both plant of Greenbushes below.
CGP1 --> 75%
CGP2 --> 67%
This report is very long but vry much detailed. Unfortunately in our ASX companies don't have to make detailed reports like this as it is a must in the US market. So our IGO won't make a report and won't reveal the weakness of the GB project. See the water problem, tailing problems, etc. in this report.
SEC Technical Report Summary
Pre-Feasibility Study, Greenbushes Mine,
Western Australia
Report Date: February 9, 2024
Report Prepared for Albemarle CorporationChemical Grade Plant 1
Chemical Grade Plant 2
(20min delay)