Operator
[Operator Instructions] And if time allows us, we will address some of the questions received via the webcast. Your first question comes from Daniel Morgan from Barrenjoey.
Daniel Morgan
First question, can you just help me understand what is the dominant driver of the lower price at Greenbushes in the $1,770 price? Is it technical grade price? Or is it the lag that you've highlighted just now on the call from December?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Thanks, Dan. I don't have the exact split between -- with me at the moment. A portion is attributable to that shipment, which was expected to go out late December, but actually went out late January. So therefore, it was booked at the old pricing but included in revenue for the March quarter. And then some is due to the marginally lower technical grade pricing this quarter relative to chemical grade pricing. Customarily, in the past, we've seen that there's a premium paid for technical grade. And in time, we expect that to revert.
Daniel Morgan
What is the outlook just on the technical grade price? What is the outlook in the near term for that? Are you able to argue for and receive a price commensurate with the battery grade or chemical grade product?
Peter Bradford
There's less -- much less of a market for the technical grade than there is the chemical grade and, therefore, much less transparency on pricing. We would -- and ultimately, it's all -- the pricing is driven by the existing contracts that Greenbushes stakeholders have with the offtakers of that technical grade product. Of course, over time, if we continue to see persistent chemical grade prices relative to technical grade prices, then there would be a motivation in our mind at IGO to potentially discontinue production of chemical grade spodumene concentrate in the future -- technical grade spodumene concentrate in the future.
Daniel Morgan
Okay. And you sold less than produced at Greenbushes in this quarter. Does that unwind in the following quarter? Or is it a working capital build as the business scales?
Peter Bradford
It's a working capital build. And similar to what you see at Nova, that's sort of waxes and wanes from 1 quarter to the next. And over the course, everything levels out.
Daniel Morgan
Okay. And last question, just the tailings retreatment plant, it ran pretty well in March at about 60% of capacity. When do you think that might be at 100%, during this quarter?
Peter Bradford
We've allowed through to -- for a couple of quarters for that to hit its straps. And the -- and that it provides time to bed the plant down, get the system for extracting the tailings from the tailings dam and into the plant working well, get the plant working well and to get the crew trained up to the same level of competence as what we've historically seen on the technical grade plant and CGP1. And as you can imagine, with the significant ramp-up of expansion at Greenbushes, with CGP2 commencing -- commissioning last year and TRP commencing -- commissioning this year, some of the skilled resources are being spread thin. And there's a training element over the next quarter -- a couple of quarters to bring the overall crew up to the same level.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Matt Greene from Credit Suisse.
Matt Greene
Yes. Just a follow-on to Dan's question there. Peter, just the chemical grade pricing is -- I guess you're restructuring that contract in September this year. How are your discussions going there with your JV partners? And when are we going to see any sort of changes potentially to the structuring around the technical grade?
Peter Bradford
The -- first off, with the potential pricing formula for the chemical grade, we would see those happening in the coming months. And to date, there's been no formal process on that.
And then on the technical grade, that pricing structure is based on orders of the 2 offtakers, Tianqi and Albemarle make -- or sorry, TLEA and Albemarle make for the technical grade product based on the contracts that they have with their customers. And that rubs off -- and that sort of dialogue between the buyer and the seller sets the price. There's no benchmark price that's referred to for the purposes of setting the technical grade price.
Matt Greene
Okay. That's helpful. And then just on costs, look, congratulations on the unit costs across both Nova and [Indiscernible]. My question is just on Greenbushes on the site costs, so ignoring the royalties there. Just trying to understand how you achieved this. I mean, material move was up 25% quarter-on-quarter. Spod sales were down slightly, and we've been hearing from everyone just how much consumables have increased. So can you just provide a little bit more context as to what you're seeing there at Greenbushes on the cost front?
Matt Dusci
Sorry, it's Matt here. So largely, that cost will drive -- with production ramp-up, you'll see greater efficiencies coming out of that operation, hence, why inflationary pressures are not necessarily seen at Greenbushes compared to other operations.
Peter Bradford
Yes. And then over the medium term, we will see a build in mining and material movement. And on a cost per tonne basis, that could provide some upward pressure.
Matt Greene
Okay. That's helpful. And just lastly for me, the -- on the hydroxide plant, not much color there. I appreciate you said no fatal flaws. But what is challenging the time line there just so you can provide a little more color there?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Yes. So it's like -- I would describe it as we're like 97% there, and we know that we can make battery grade product because we are making it. And the reality is we are getting some marginal contamination in the drying and packaging stage. So we're just working through some mechanical changes there to stop that contamination. And then we would expect to be able to bag battery grade products as well as make it at the crystallizer.
And one thing to appreciate here is the very high levels of purity. And with contamination, for instance, from the likes of magnetics, we're talking about a quality benchmark which is 100 parts per billion. So the level of contamination that's required to kick that over to the wrong side of the performance metric is not very much.
Matt Dusci
Yes. And we know that we produce that factory grade in the circuit prior to the drying circuit. So -- and that's where the introduction of iron is coming into the circuit.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Peter O'Connor from Shaw and Partners.
Peter O’Connor
Just to reiterate, great on costs given the inflationary pressure in the West and also nice to have a tailwind. Pete, just to the JV and cash flow, you indicated in your commentary that you're expecting returns in the second half of this calendar year. Could you just remind us of the process and structure of sweep and dividend payments for both Greenbushes and also the hydroxide plant eventually?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Sure. So in April, Greenbushes moved to a monthly sweep of dividend to the shareholders, so that from an IGO perspective, there's Greenbushes dividend going out to TLEA on a monthly basis. And we would expect that at an IGO level, we would see a dividend flow from TLEA most likely in the early September quarter. And with a -- and although contractually, under the shareholders' agreement with TLEA, we are expecting quarterly dividend flow with a monthly dividend flow from Greenbushes, there could be good logic for Tianqi and IGO to consider a monthly dividend from TLEA up to the shareholders.
Peter O’Connor
Okay. Thinking ahead, with the refinery, is that the sellers sweep process when you do start putting cash there?
Peter Bradford
Say it again, Pete.
Matt Dusci
With the refinery.
Peter Bradford
Say it again, Pete.
Peter O’Connor
When you do start generating a profit and delivering product from the hydroxide plant, what's the sweep arrangement for cash there?
Peter Bradford
Exactly the same. When we think about Kwinana holistically, it's -- we said it's 100% embedded in TLEA. So we would see as -- it's just part of that TLEA dividend structure.
Peter O’Connor
Okay. To the hydroxide plant, Pete, just -- you said you're at 97% of the process to get there. When you do achieve a product and start shipping product which is commercial, do you then have to go through a qualification for that product? Is there another step or...
Peter Bradford
Yes. Yes, there's a period of qualification with each of the offtakers. And variably, that's between 4 and 6 months. And once they finish their qualification, we are then obligated to deliver into the contracts. And until that point where we're delivering into contracts, they would -- we would expect there would be product available to sell into the spot market.
Peter O’Connor
So how should we think about the financial contribution from hydroxide over the next 1 quarter, 2 quarters, 3 quarters? Will there be any reasonable income coming through?
Peter Bradford
It will be higher than the March quarter.
Peter O’Connor
That's not hard.
Peter Bradford
But it's in commissioning and trial production, Peter. And it's too early for us to give guidance at this stage and -- because the risk is that we could be wrong to either the upside or the downside. And so we would prefer to just hunker down, get the work done, deliver what we're saying we will do. And then the financial results and the cash flow will be an outcome of that.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Tim Hoff from Canaccord.
Tim Hoff
I was just wondering around the Chemical Grade Plant 3. Can you take us through the 2.5-year time frame? It just seems like that's a fairly long development schedule for a brownfield operation. And can you perhaps take us through what that capital profile might look like over that period?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Sure. So the overall capital profile is similar to what you would expect for this sort of project. There's a -- effectively an S curve of cash flow. And the peak cash flow point or cash outflow point from recollection, and I'm shooting from the hip here, Tim, and -- is about the midpoint of the project.
Tim Hoff
Roger. And just in terms of that time frame?
Peter Bradford
From a timing point of view, we have built some cushion in there, recognizing the fact that we are in an overheated construction market here in Western Australia and that the people we need to do work may not be available the instant you need them. So there's some cushion provided in the estimate from that. But we fully expect that we'll take up all of the construction time that we've allowed for through to early 2025.
Tim Hoff
Yes. And just in terms of, I guess, the Western Areas acquisition, you've got your debt facility there, perhaps it's going to be used to finance that. And you've got $400 million of additional capacity. Do you anticipate drawing any of that additional $400 million?
Peter Bradford
The $400 million revolver that we have at the moment will be replaced by the -- effectively by the new term facility and revolver. So going forward, the full debt capacity will be that -- the full debt facilities will be that $900 million.
So to answer your question, we won't be drawing down any of the existing $400 million revolver because that will disappear.
Tim Hoff And then perhaps finally, can you remind us what the offtake agreements are at Kwinana? Is that material? Just noting there was a few questions put to Tianqi around its supply chain and whether it had connections into Russian military supply chains, which they said they weren't connected. But I guess that just highlights some of the opaqueness in dealing with global partners.
Peter Bradford
Yes. Sure. We've got 4 contracted offtakers for Train 1. Three of those are South Korean companies, and 1 is a European company, Northvolt. And I don't believe there's any connectivity back to Russia through any of those. And all of those offtakers are listed on prior presentations of ours.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Mitch Ryan from Jefferies.
Mitch Ryan
My first question is with regards to Kwinana. Obviously, as you said, Train 1 is at 97%, and it didn't quite make it to guidance of first production in the March quarter. I guess I just wanted to understand how we should be thinking about the ramp-up profile beyond that. I know you said you're very close to producing first battery grade hydroxide. But what does the ramp-up profile look like? And is there anything that you're seeing currently that is changing how you're thinking about that?
Peter Bradford
Like through this period, we've been able to flex various parts of the plant because we do have some storage capacity between stages. So we know -- for example, we recently ran the calciner at pretty much full capacity in the last run and through that filled up the storage in between the circuits. And we've been doing a similar thing through the dissolution and impurity removal stages.
So all of these we are testing. And the expectation would be that once we deliver the battery grade product, we'll -- the very next milestone will be continuous operation at about 50% of the capacity and then -- which we would expect to hit quite quickly and then to move up beyond that progressively.
Mitch Ryan
And my second question relates to, obviously, you've given us an update on CGP3. But do you have a current thinking on the timing of CGP4? Is there an ability to accelerate that, I guess, given the quantum of build time that you've outlined as part of that?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Certainly. And at this stage, it's -- I'd characterize it as -- that it's on the plan. It's permitted. But we have not got a mapped-out Board process to approve CGP4, but that -- and that will be something that we'll start to backfill in the coming quarters. And the aim continues to be to have that in -- completed by 2027. So we would expect a commitment to that project sometime during the CGP3 build.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Kaan Peker from Royal Bank of Canada.
Kaan Peker
First question is on realized price, sort of circling back to Dan's question. But at Greenbushes, how much of the sales are booked under last quarter's pricing, I mean, in terms of 1,000 tonnes or percentage? Do you have an idea?
Peter Bradford
Yes. I don't have that at my fingertips. And if Scott was here, he would likely have it available. But from an overall financial performance point of view, the split between the technical grade and the price for the -- and the amount of materials sold, the previous benchmark price doesn't really change the outcome for the quarter. That's...
Kaan Peker
If we go off that logic, if technical grade is similar pricing to chemical, it suggests that 10% to 15% of this quarter's sales were done on the previous quarter's pricing. Is that...
Peter Bradford
Yes. I just don't have the number in front of me at the moment. Quite happy to circle back with you on that, but I don't think it moves the dial from a value realization perspective going forward.
Kaan Peker
Sure. Sure. It's just probably providing more transparency around the pricing. But yes, my second...
Peter Bradford
I think like if you're looking for transparency on the technical grade pricing, I think the June quarter results would have less noise. There would only be the one moving part, and people would be able to back calculate what the technical grade price is with the June quarter results. I'm not at liberty to talk to the contracted price for that technical grade product that's privileged to Albemarle and TLEA.
Kaan Peker
Yes. Understood. And the second one is, again, on cost control. Great job at Nova. I mean, if you break out by-product credits, still, mining and processing costs, they really haven't escalated much. But maybe if you can provide some clarity around that, that would be great.
Peter Bradford
Yes. Look, I can talk to that. What we see is some of our continuous improvements still come through. So for example, this quarter, we're shifting shutdown infills from 10 weeks to 12 weeks. So some of those initiatives that we continue to push through the business ensure that the costs -- we can keep a handle on costs and ultimately come in close to where we expected at the start of the financial year.
But it doesn't mean there's not cost pressures. And over the course of the last 24 months, we've seen fuel go from $0.73 a liter to $1.32 per liter today. We've seen freight costs for our concentrate from a road transport point of view increase by circa 15%. We've seen concentrate shipping costs increase by circa 60%. So there are lots of cost pressures. So the job that Matt and the team at Nova are doing, to corral those with productivity improvements and cost reductions in other areas, is just an outstanding job.
Kaan Peker
Yes. Definitely agree. And just I'll sneak a third one, if that's okay. Just in -- with Kwinana postaccreditation, just wondering what the offtake contracts look like, I mean, your fixed volume or variable price? Is there sort of time periods? Any sort of [Indiscernible]?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Each of the contract has a different nature. The -- each of the contract is different, and each year has a different benchmark price as a reference point for pricing. And each of them are refreshed to benchmark at least one time per year.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Lyndon Fagan from JPMorgan.
Lyndon Fagan
So just back on the technical grade product. How often does that contract reset? Is it a 6-monthly contract? Or is it something else?
Peter Bradford
It's done on an order basis, and it's approximately every 6 months.
Lyndon Fagan
So should we expect a similar pricing period from a modeling perspective over a 6-month period, similar to how we think about chemical grade?
Peter Bradford
Yes. I would say if you're modeling something, then June quarter will be unchanged. And then there would be a reset based on those contract negotiations for the second half of the coming year.
Lyndon Fagan
You mentioned technical sold at a discount to chemical this period. How long would that likely persist?
Peter Bradford
It's like -- in the technical grade, it's all about supply and demand of the material. And so the price of it will respond over time. And customarily, the technical grade does sell for a higher price than the chemical grade. And that's been our observation for past periods prior to the March quarter.
Lyndon Fagan
And have you got a rule of thumb on how we should think about that from a modeling point of
view over time? Is it a 20% premium? Is it something different?
Peter Bradford
No. We're not in a position to speculate on that, Lyndon.
Lyndon Fagan
Okay. And another bit of admin. So you're reporting a free-on-board realized price. Can I confirm that all of your sales are done on a free-on-board basis? Or are there some CFR sales?
Peter Bradford
I'd have to come back to you on that, Lyndon.
Lyndon Fagan
Right. Okay. And then just a final one, I guess. I mean, it was a pretty busy period from an M&A point of view. You almost bought a copper mine off Glencore and obviously, a big bump in the Western Areas bid. I mean, maybe just from a high-level perspective, can you maybe give us an update of your vision around how you'd like this portfolio to look? So I guess what I'm getting at is, there's a lot of cash flow coming through from the lithium joint venture over the coming years. How should the market expect that to be distributed versus reinvested into building a bigger company?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Sure. So like we routinely talk about our aspiration, which is to grow a company that has -- that is globally relevant in the clean energy metals space. And we routinely talk to a diversified portfolio of clean energy metals, which would include lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt. And we currently produce all of those from -- through the lithium joint venture and from Nova. And we talk to our aspiration to be connected to customers through both upstream mining operations and downstream processing operations to produce finished products that are ready for use by end users in the battery supply chain. So that's the strategic framework there.
And at the same time, we recognize the needs of shareholders and the discipline that's demonstrated with regular cash returns to shareholders. So from a capital allocation perspective, we have a balanced approach with an amount of free cash flow generation which is returned to shareholders as cash returns and, at the same time, continuing investment in exploration to find the mines of the future and serve to invest in continuing growth of the business, whether it be through expansion activities of the existing assets like we're doing at Greenbushes and Kwinana or whether it be M&A to bring new assets into the business.
Lyndon Fagan
Right. And just a final one. So again, on costs, fantastic results, I think one of the only companies to report lower cost quarter-on-quarter. But again, I just don't quite understand the explanation at Greenbushes. Given how much more material movement there was versus last quarter, how was it that there was actually a lower unit cost?
Peter Bradford
You've got marginally higher production on a dollar-per-tonne-produced basis. That has some impact. And those would -- and other than that, the costs are relatively static quarter-on-quarter.
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Operator
Your next question comes from Justin Raja from UBS.
Levi Spry
That might actually be me. It's Levi here. I might come back to you on the average realized spodumene price later on. But just at Tianqi, can you just talk us through the, I guess, the iron in the lithium hydroxide? So how long you've been working on getting that out? And have the -- I guess, have the specs of those 4 customers changed over time? And do they have different specs? Like are you producing the same product for all of them?
Peter Bradford
This is a -- the spec hasn't changed, and we've been working towards that spec for some time. There's a little bit of contamination that we are getting in the very final stage in some of the early commissioning and trial production work we were doing. That was masked as we were flushing some of that contamination from other parts of the circuit out. And it was only at the point where we cleaned up everything else that we realized that there was that last residual bit of recontamination in the drying and bagging phase. And so there's been a focus on that over the last probably 3, 4 weeks -- 4 weeks, I would say.
Matt Dusci
Yes. There's 2 elements to that in terms of both introduction of iron into the circuit somewhere in that drying/bagging phase, but also in terms of throughput as well. So as we ramp up throughput through that circuit, we'll look at reducing that level of iron in that component of the circuit. Along with that, we're looking at some slight engineering change, changing some of the screw feeders, et cetera, from 300 series to 400 series stainless steel. So better -- we'll be able to better remove the iron through magnetic separation.
Levi Spry
Okay. Yes. So it may -- so maybe changing a bit of the kit out to higher quality and magnets and steel, the removal method, is it or the only removal, just for the layman?
Matt Dusci
Right. It's about increasing throughput as a dilution, and they are also about changing out some of that kit so that we can actually remove the impurities that are introduced.
Levi Spry
Yes. Cool. And changing pace a little bit back to Silver Knight, I don't think we've really talked about that at all and Nova. But can you just talk to the next steps there when -- what the time lines look like, when it could be going through the plant and when you can really test -- that looks like you're drilling some of those nearby targets this quarter, but when you test the depth, so production and the depth?
Matt Dusci
So in terms of time line, majority of the technical work will get done at the end of -- by the end of this calendar year. Currently, we're doing resource drilling. We've got all the net samples in process as well at the moment. That will just add in the blend that will feed into Nova. Critical path will be environmental permitting. Expectation is to have that environmental permit done by mid-calendar year next year.
In terms of drilling, first phase of drilling is really focused on resource extensions at Silver Knight. Both -- they will go into resource definition and then start to drill test some of these targets through the quarter, including some of those deeper targets.
Levi Spry
And mining, realistically, is that a 2- to 3-year job?
Matt Dusci
Yes. Production profile largely is taken by blend feed going into Nova. And then -- what we're working through now is the Nova life of mine as well to find out the optimal feed and blend scenario for Silver Knight.
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Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your next question is a follow-up from Peter O'Connor from Shaw and Partners.
Peter O’Connor
Pete, just circling back to Lyndon's question, which is not only about where you're headed from a corporate perspective.
So you're clearly opportunistic, which is great. And your discipline is also noted.
If we try and think about what keeps you rooted so that it makes you go to a data room, why do Cobar come up? Why not [Indiscernible] here or broader?
I guess I actually think -- is there a logic or some sort of an analogy with Cobar or other efforts you made?
Look, I'm just trying to understand what gets this lag going in your corporate team and makes you do, do this?
Peter Bradford
Yes. So that's a good question, Peter.
We haven't said that -- what assets we may or may not have looked at.
And generally, most of the assets we do look at, that's kept confidential.
And it's something because there was a leak of information to -- around Cobar that the market was generally aware of the fact that we were looking at it.
We routinely look at all types of assets across that space, nickel, cobalt, lithium, copper in Australia and globally with a focus on assets that -- where we see potential for mine lives in excess of 10 years or longer and where we see the ability to -- or the optionality to turn those assets into assets that are in the bottom half of the cost curve.
Peter O’Connor
Can I just segue back to Nova? And the plant that's been talked about in previous calls, the -- literally, it's called the -- sorry, I'm just having a little blank, the sulfide plant, you had mentioned in your prepared remarks about Western Areas steering you back in that direction.
Could you just join the dots up there and explain how that would work and the time line and what we should expect?
Peter Bradford
Yes. Sure. So this is a program of work that we will commit to as -- once the Western Areas transaction is completed.
And in readiness or in preparation for that, we are assembling the team and putting in place all of the processes that we'll need to start that work.
And I expect that by the time we get to September quarter reporting, we'll be talking about some of the early-stage activity around the nickel sulfide project.
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Operator
There are no further questions from the phone line, and there are no further questions registered via the webcast. I'd now like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Bradford for closing remarks.
Peter Bradford
Great. Thanks, everyone. Once again, we appreciate your participation throughout the presentation and the Q&A session and your continuing support for what we're doing here at IGO.
Stay safe, and have a great day.
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