Piedmont have just released a set of financials for a hydroxide plant with throughput of 196kt of Spod. This is the sort of scale that Core's could be considering. The estimated capital cost is US$500m + contingency. As expected, multi-billion NPV's. While the steady-state LiOH production cost looks high, it includes buying Spod at US$1,200/t (making up $8,053 of the $10,630 AISC).
Given the forecast out-year perpetual deficit and the current spot rates, the pricing used is conservative at around a third of current spot prices.
CXO Price at posting:
93.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
