Another good post from Scarpa on Conversion of SC6 for reference While I'm at it.... good posts like these get lost in the ether I hope you don't mind Scarpa
something I learnt today through Scarpa's posts, alongside many other things: Lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LioH.H20) 56.5% battery grade Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) 99.5% battery grade are the lithium market products bought by China Europe US Asia Korea Japan and quoted through FastMarkets AVZ will be producing the Lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LioH.H20) 56.5% battery grade As well as PLS (80%) AVZ DFS PLS lithium sulphate monohydrate (Li2SO4.H2O) sell price US$7,355/t
On the sulphate issue, and what AVZ is doing refer to Post #:50059721
For those seeking to understand the process of going from sulphate to hydroxide, this patent is an ok explanation, which is from the above embedded post: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2013159194A1
In terms of conversions, this post explains conversions for the different types of lithium chemical - Post #:49904804and Post #:49821585. Now just to be clear from the two embedded posts:
1. Lithium sulphate monohydrate has a Li content of 10.85% - or roughly requires around 4.3 tonnes of 6% grade spodumene at a 90% recovery rate -https://www.convertunits.com/molarmass/Li2SO4.H2O. Or in other words around 3.4 tonnes of spodumene feedstock if producing lithium sulphate monohydrate 80% (which conforms to the AVZ DFS conversions which is what AVZ is producing been producing lithium sulphate monohydrate 80%etc).
2. AVZ are not selling other forms of lithium sulphate, and the price in AVZ's DFS I presume is what corresponds to lithium sulphate monohydrate 80%. Lithium sulphate per se has a Li content of 12.626% -https://www.convertunits.com/molarmass/Li2SO4.
3. Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) has a Li content of 18.8, so need about 7.5 tonnes of 6% grade spodumene at a 90% recovery rate in the roasting process (i.e. 2.78% Li * 7.5 * 90%). You need 5.3 tonnes of carbonate to produce lithium metal.
4. Lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LioH.H20) has a Li content of 16.5%, so need about 6.5 tonnes of 6% grade spodumene at a 90% recovery rate. This is generally the 'hydroxide' price quoted at 56.5%
5. Lithium hydroxide (LioH) has a Li content of 29, so need 11.5 tonnes 6% grade spodumene at a 90% recovery rate.
6. Lithium oxide has a Li content of 46.4%, or another way to put it you need about 18.5 tonnes of spodumene equivalent to produce 1 tonne of it at a 90% recovery rate. You need about 2.15 tonnes of this to produce lithium metal.
7. Given the above others can do own conversions, but ultimately gauging the conversions above guides what AVZ is doing and where process stops for AVZ.
Will be interesting to see the process AVZ specifically uses to produce sulphate, as patents are difficult to come by to gauge. Anyway, this is one patent I have found on the subject, but would appear some subtle differences as temperature is slightly lower than 1050 degrees in intitial caclination: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2972517
(20min delay)