@LurraWhatever they do that is going to be very high cost mine.
I'd like you to pay attention to what I said on my post above;
it is not a classic hard rock mine in pegmatite form (not a spodumene pegmatite, not even a lepidolite pegmatite).
It is a polymetallic vein (inside the faults) deposit.
The veins have the thickness of 1m to 4m which is typical for vein deposits.
The Chinse has to mine all these THIN VEINS TO EXTRACT LITHIUM and other metals. it's a high cost lithium mine. It's going to be open pit mine first but then they have to underground as the veins in resource go deep down to 950m.
When you try to extract lithium from that thin veins you can't even get much clean ore. The extracted ore will contain a lot of waste (host rock contact) as well.
Also, it will be very hard to do this underground.
Yes, I know Chinese can do anything but tell me about the cost.
BAYAN OBO IRON ORE & REE MINE IN INNER MONGOLIAThere is actually a very big IRON OR and REE mine at that Inner Mongolia area of China.
It's called Bayan Obo mine. Discovered in 1927. (REE discovery 1935). It's a well known mine.
It is also a polymetallic deposit like the Weilasituo lithium-tin mine, which is associated with the hydrothermal fluids. Nothing is rich in these type of deposits and expensive to extract.
This mine was supplying the iron ore for China for a long time. But it has low grade of 35%. If you compare it with the iron ore from Australia it's very low. (Australian ore BHP and RIO at Pilbara typically averages around 62% Fe.)
CHINA HAD TO BUY AUSTRALIAN IRON ORE FOR LAST 25 YEARS AT PREMIUM PRICES.
BECAUSE THEY NEED IT A LOT AND WE HAVE HIGH GRADEEven China has this huge mine, they had to and still have to buy huge amount of (approx. $100b each year) iron ore from Australia because they need it and they use it a lot. China paid nearly US$1.5 trillion to Australia only for iron ore imports. (Available data; 2005 to 2023, Australia earned ~$1.2 trillion from iron ore exports to China). China buys 60%-65% of its iron ore from Australia.
NOW ITS AUSTRALIAN LITHIUM'S TURN..!It is going to be the same scenario for lithium very soon. That is what I am trying to explain on my first post above. China will have to buy huge amount of lithium from Australia. REE was a by product at that mine for long time. But after 2000s, the REE has become important and expensive. Then the Chinese started to mine mainly REE from this mine. It has the 70% of world reserves they say there. That is the reason China is holding the power in REEs.
The area at Bayan Obo is entirely and irreversibly polluted and it's now an environmental disaster area btw. There are no tailing dams, the tailing is just being thrown to the nature as you can see on the image below.
(20min delay)