16.0 million tonnes LCE with a concentration of 79 mg/L. That is very low grade compared to ours at 437ppm.
Must be a very large deposit to contain 16Mt LCE at that low 79mg/L grade.
That link you provided had PFS results for a project with a grade that is coincidentally exactly the same as ours at 437ppm. At a production target of 30ktpa or around half of our targeted rate over a 20 year period (20 years is also the minimum of what ours is expected to be able to achieve on the expected reserve), the base case NPV is $3.1bill with an IRR of 32.8%. At 60,000tpa, our NPV could therefore potentially be over $6.2 billion, all else being equal. Both are in the US.
Capex is estimated at $1.3 bill so ours might be around $2.5bill for double the throughput? That's in line with what you posted "$2.5 billion to $3 billion for 60,000 tpa capacity."
PFS Highlights:
Lithium brine project in southwestern Arkansas. PFS indicates base case production of 30,000 tonnes per annum (“tpa”) battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (“LHM”); upside case of 35,000 tpa
20-year plus operating life. Upgraded mineral resource averaging 437 mg/L underpins a minimum 20-year operating life
Robust project economics. Base case after-tax NPV $3.1 billion and IRR of 32.8% and upside case after-tax NPV $3.7 billion and IRR of 35.4%, assuming production of 30,000 tpa and 35,000 tpa, respectively, and both assuming discount rate of 8% and a long-term price of $30,000/t for battery-quality LHM
CAPEX of $1.3 billion. Total capex estimate of $1.3 billion includes conservative 20% contingency
