For those who want to know how you make clay lithium economical. It's all about scale.Surge Battery Metals PEA unveils $9.2B Nevada lithium projecthttps://www.mining.com/surge-battery-metals-pea-unveils-9-2b-nevada-lithium-project/- 42 years mine life @ an average of
86,300 tonnes LCE annually- Phase 1: $2.97 billion, Phase 2: $2.35 billion. Together with a sustaining capital of $1.51 billion, the entire project would cost $6.86 billion.
- $79,490 CAPEX per tonne
- OPEX $5,097/t LCE
- IRR of 22.8%
- Using an LCE price of $24,000/tonne
- 4.7-year payback.
This is America's highest grade clay lithium project (Surge's market cap is 53 million AUD). Prairie looks much better in comparison:
- 48,000 CAPEX per tonne (should lower with upscaling)
- OPEX $2819
- Using LCE price of $21,000/tonne
- IRR 23.9%
- 2.2 year payback
(20min delay)