hi @jgbit62There’s not much point discussing FFX’s Goulamina...

hi @jgbit62

There’s not much point discussing FFX’s Goulamina project anymore beyond what options to divest can entail? FFX May have to hold onto the project

I’m using as a benchmark the best hard rock Spodumene mines on the planet, Greenbushes. Your quotation briefly glosses over Greenbushes grades. My post here quotes Tianqi Lithium Australia, linked here and quotation below

https://hotcopper.com.au/posts/50041912/single
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The Greenbushes spod has a leading reputation in the market as being consistently the highest grade with the lowest number of impurities (including iron).

To maximise lithium recoveries and ensure optimised costs of production, conversion plants should be designed based on the spod feedstock. Converters who flip and flop between spod feedstocks will ultimately get themselves in trouble sooner or later.

Being vertically integrated is key to success in this game.”

Tianqi Australia
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From this comment on Spod feedstock, the critical matter for companies like FF and converters, (and do note Donohue of KDR stating it bluntly) is vertical integration and quality of inputs starting with ore in the ground. I’m sceptical of FFX’s 1.75% average grade representative ore sampling, considering AVZ’s resources are vastly more mono-lithic aka homogeneous and yet are using a lower grade average grade. In other words one is more conservative, and one is less so and doesn’t have the homogeneity to provide the confidence hence the relatively speaking low Proven Ore resource category. I guess the company thinks it can sort problems out during commissioning. I note PLS in this cavalier regard

this link will show you where my sources are, this is the most complete information on Greenbushes out there: https://hotcopper.com.au/posts/49975821/single
to join some dots on MLL / FFX, FFX had an MOU w/ GLC General Lithium Corporation. Their website is palith.com and the data on SC6 product characteristics for a hydroxide plant you need to know to understand my perspective that is NEVER available openly till AVZ published it, is here:
http://www.palith.com/userup/files/3_1另附1%20环境影响评价报告书.pdf

The page and table is, p.70, here it is at bottom of text, as a screenshot.

What it shows is the optimal characteristics of SC6 from Talisons Greenbushes (this pdf and Screenshot extracted from it, is an environmental report to a local government authority).

The moisture content is 5%,
grind size is 5600um.

To compare, Manono tried to do 5.56mm but the metallurgy said no. @ 3.36mm FFX metallurgy said?

3.36mm was optimal for still achieving SC6+ and with really low Fe, even compared to Talison below. In fact, AVZ was still below the 0.75% for age to my recollection. I presume GB is using an upper limit and could be lower as % like Manono SC6 Fe %.

So the clue here for liberation from Spodumene lattice, (see Talisons prospectus pdf Link above) by the time you reach 100-150micron for a battery grade market, not industrial, but battery aka chemical grade SC6, that Fe species % has to be lower than 0.56%. It is not apple to apple when you factor in grind size. Ubique misses this and also fails to ask openly why doesn’t FFX just do 3.36mm and not worry about moisture issues slowing down logistics and labor costs?

Why the larger grind size by Talisons GB? FFX tacitly make the point this grind size and 3.36mm etc make SC6 easier to handle by industry conventional converters but that FFC sees scope with more modern converter / kiln facilities; a way to not lose product during the incendiary process.
I take their point but their point does not clarify whether or not these facilities want to use 300ktpa of SC fines. Unless the Company can show a niche or gap then it has to be purpose made aka vertical integration. Which brings me to the next point the company admits in the DFS (kw: moisture ) that it has more work to do on managing moisture over 10% is a problem and a result of going full hog froth flotation. And That won’t be so easy when the volume is Approximately 300ktpa. Usually SC6 fines is just 20% not 100% of production quota. Larger grind sizes are easier to manage. industrial scale creates an industrial solution needed and the company has not announced one in its DFS.

The final point is, I don’t believe the company is completely genuine about shipping SC6 fines to China and Ubique’s proposal (that the company has not announced) to do a hydroxide plant in Abidjan is a better option to focus on EU. And that’s what the scoping study was not just parallel but that the DFS due to direction of metallurgy taken for lithia recoveries was contingent on. The SS was a necessary part of the thesis, but the company focussing on gold paused it, shelved it.

All the above will weigh on FFX ‘s asking price regards divestment options as Tweeted just today.

If you request I’ll find you the data sheets from Albermale that also clarify grind size. But you may find that in the above links