If you work on the view that the difference between technical grade (TG) (glass/ceramics/other) and chemical grade (CG) (batteries) lithium is impurity content in the spodumene concentrate then that gives the possibility for explaining this. TG lithium can be used in CG applications but CG cannot be used if impurity content is, for example, above 0.5% - 0.7% Fe203 IMO for example. Infact, if you go back to my post above, if FE203 comes in at 0.5% Fe203 what is produced by AVZ can be used in the TG market as well.
If you think about what 6% grade spodumene means, it means that 75% of the concentrate is spodumene. 7% grade spodumene concentrate means 87% of the concentrate is spodumene. The rest needs to be removed by the converters, and the key is you want as little deleterious elements in the junk, noting deleterious elements for TG need to be less than, for example, I would say 0.5% - 0.7% Fe203 IMO, noting I suspect what Albermale is reporting is the TG produced at Greenbushes that is Albermale's share of that output (just a hunch as I recall reading something that currently Greenbushes supplies all or most of the world's TG.
Now, IMO the TG that can be used in the CG market needs to grade 5.5% to 6% or above. And I suspect the different TG sales product types are for different TG applications, especially the 5% one. (just a hunch). The link below shows what TG and CG is used for, and what you would note is TG applications are far more broader than CG applications.
https://www.talisonlithium.com/lithium
Why no 6% grade TG reported - maybe missing data or the market for that makeup of TG is not there and/or for Greenbushes with low FE203 (whilst that product could be sold for the TG market as well), that is simply the standard product wanted by CG applications in the battery market.
It is just a pricing thing noting from GXY for CG for each 0.1 percentage points below 6% grade CG a discount of US$15 per tonne applies (and that probably means for each 0.1 percentage points above 6.0% you get US$15 per tonne (just a hunch).
VB downed,if anyone else has a view please share.
All IMO and the above is just a guess
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