Not sure if the following McKinsey article on Australia’s lithium potential dated June 2023 has been posted. I found the attached chart of particular interest showing Australia has the lowest cost of producing lithium hydroxide for integrated lithium producers. The Australian cost is about half the cost or less than that in USA and Europe. No wonder existing WA lithium producers are all looking at lithium hydroxide plants in Australia using in JVs. I was pleasantly surprised by the information as I expected a very different result.
With SQM on board as a major shareholder of AZS, constructing a lithium hydroxide plant in WA near an existing port and existing major infrastructure and close to the Andover potential lithium mine (making it even more attractive than all other existing lithium mines in WA) in a JV with SQM would add a major source of additional revenue and profit for AZS.
This demonstrates the potential big financial benefit of having SQM in AZS’s corner.
“Australia’s lithium reserves (among the highest grades globally) are extracted through hard-rock mining and the ore processed into spodumene, which can then be refined into either lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate (lithium hydroxide is the preferred route because refining from spodumene is less complex and che9aper than refining lithium carbonate from spodumene). Most South American lithium reserves are brine, which is extracted through heavily water-dependent evaporation ponds. This raw material is predominantly converted into lithium carbonate (because of the greater complexity and cost of conversion to lithium hydroxide). China relies on both extraction methods.”
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