Hi Guemar,
I don't even think Jerko or Pablo would deny that the basic chemistry of the Rincon brine is less favourable than some other resources out there.
Here are some numbers from Rincon:
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20181128/pdf/440q663bmjz5wk.pdfHere are some, for example and comparison, from Hombre Muerto (Galan):
https://galanlithium.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Australian-Research-Report.pdfAlso, this re Galaxy's resource at Hombre Muerto, as well as some specs for a couple of others.:
"the Li concentration in the Salar de Atacama is the highest in the world (at 1400 mg/L; Gruber & Medina, 2010)"
"undesirable elements which may interfere with the Li recovery process, such as Mg and other major brine components including Na, K, Ca, B, Cl, and SO4"
"Atacama possesses a very high grade of both lithium (1,840mg/l) and potassium (22,630mg/l), has a high rate of evaporation (3,200 mm per year) and extremely low annual rainfall (15mm average per year). These characteristics make Atacama’s finished lithium carbonate easier and cheaper to produce than its peer group globally.
https://investorintel.com/technology-metals-intel/galaxy-great-survivor-lithium-space/?print=printhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/rge.12030https://wealthminerals.com/projects/atacama-salar/#:~:text=Salar%20Comparison&text=Atacama%20possesses%20a%20very%20high,(15mm%20average%20per%20year).Also, this one is a bit older but informative:
http://www.aimva.com.au/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=185289Not perfect info/references, but best I could do on short notice
Anyone with more current/accurate info, please share!
So, AGY's resource has relatively low Li content, as well as relatively high Mg/Li ratio. Also, our S04/i ratio is very high; circa 50-60 vs "only" about 11.5 for Hombre Muerto and about 11 for the Atacama.
IMO, the "low quality" tag is reasonable...
HOWEVER, this only serves to clarify the absolutely fantastic progress and work of Pablo and team to deliver the
successful processing solution that they have demonstrated, at industrial scale of course.
I'm confident that many labs could process this Rincon brine into high-grade battery quality carbonate, however,
we have done this with a process and equipment that is directly scalable to deliver commercial-scale production.
This, imo, is what clearly stands us out from the crowd - delivering top-quality product from brine, with a feasible and scalable process solution, that many said was impossible to do viably.
Our projected capital intensity and operating costs (below) are even better than some others who have had a significant head start with more favourable chemistry.
Absolutely awesome achievements so far imo.
Run that estimated $4,645 along this chart, and things look pretty darn good imo:
Cheers
IMO
DYOR
(20min delay)