Australian wants to produce lithium in Montalegre at the end of...

Australian wants to produce lithium in Montalegre at the end of 2018

Feasibility study will be completed in April and, if it is positive, the company will extract between five and ten thousand tons of raw material per year.

The Australian company Dakota Minerals plans to start up the lithium mine at the Montalegre mine in the Vila Real district by the end of next year. The objective is to use the raw material for the production of batteries for the supply of electric cars, whose sales, in January alone, increased 210%. "We intend to start production by the end of 2018 if our feasibility studies are positive," Francis Wedin, technical director of the Australian mining company, told Vivo. The results of the feasibility study will be announced in April. The goal "is to produce between five and ten thousand tons of carbon lithium per year," he said in an e-mailed statement. Francis Wedin believes that the company, which has already announced the discovery of one of Europe's largest lithium deposits in the Montalegre (Trás-os-Montes) region, will make further discoveries of ore in Portugal. "We are actively exploring and we will continue to do so." In Montalegre the Australian company operates in partnership with Portugal's LusoRecursos, through an agreement to hold the exploitation rights. The model is to replicate: "We are open to new partnerships." Dakota Minerals, according to the Jornal de Negócios, plans to invest between 185 and 370 million euros by 2019 in the region to explore not only the mine but also build a factory for the processing of lithium compounds. The financing is still open and the company admits the entry of Portuguese partners in this project or the use of community funds for the investment phase. At the moment, the company has already invested around one million dollars (930 thousand euros) in the activities of prospection. The company has six employees but, by advancing the exploration and the factory project, 200 jobs will be created. The objective is to process lithium in Portugal using renewable sources (mainly water) and using electric trucks to export the product to the battery factories in Europe. Asked by Vivo Cash, Francis Wedin guarantees that "at this stage, we are not in contact" with Tesla, the electric car manufacturer that can bring a battery factory to Portugal (see box). Tesla has announced that it will start looking for location for the construction of a battery factory in Europe this year, but did not specify the most interesting geographies. Portugal may be in the shortlist of the North American company. The electric car market has grown rapidly. In 2016, sales of electric cars in Europe grew by 17%, according to ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association). The change in legislation and support policies in the European Union is expected to increase this value in the coming years, strengthening the demand for raw material for lithium batteries. In Portugal, only in January of this year, sales increased by 210%, totaling 96 units, according to data from the Automobile Association of Portugal (ACAP). The market is being boosted by the government's incentive to buy electric cars - the executive had proposed to give a thousand checks of 2250 euros to anyone who bought electric cars by the end of the year. The supply network for these vehicles is also being reinforced, with an increase in loading points. Mobi.e already has more than 500 charging points and will be extended by 200 more, so the government has already requested a study from ERSE, the energy regulator, about the impact these new electricity requirements will have on Supply network. And costs for consumers.



Source: https://www.dinheirovivo.pt/empresa...roduzir-litio-em-montalegre-no-final-de-2018/