We’ve learnt the hard way that there is no
1800-Rincon.brine.carbonate.plants.R.US number to call to design a plant.
Pablo and co knew this.
What were they going to do? call Hatch to guess the specifics required? Unique and arguably challenging chemistry requires a unique processing solution; that’s the tough reality afaict. Expansion will be far “easier”, afaict.
Also, regarding getting stuff sorted/fixed/replaced/etc, we have learnt that there are major hurdles that simply do not exist in many other places, e.g.
“
Argentina has until now been a suffocating place to do things. It’s so protectionist it takes three months to get a new pump that I could in three days anywhere else. You couldn’t fire anybody if they weren’t pulling their weight. All this is going to go with Milei,”
How ludicrous is that?! Hopefully we’ll see that change asap with the new govt.
No fluffy excuses required btw - the facts stand that issues around resourcing etc have added significant time to getting the plant sorted. Sure it would have been great if it just all worked from day 1, but it didn’t, and imo it’s important to recognise the potential massive impact that issues like the “new pump” example above have likely had on rectifying the plant issues over the past year or so.
Could PA and team have done better? Probably, sure, but it’s difficult to know how much “blame” to apportion to them, and how much of the protraction was due to all manner of other things that are outside their control.
I guess we won’t know without having a few beers with Francisco and co… maybe one day.
Anyway, my point is that yes the delays etc have been sh!t, but we simply don’t know what scenario B or C may have looked like….nor how much was “their fault” so to speak.
Now some may say ..well it’s
all their fault because they are the ones running the show…. But imo this is oversimplistic and unreasonable, especially if there are very real and very significant hurdles and restrictions related to resourcing and procurement, as it seems there is indeed.
Lots of lessons, regardless, for sure!
Also, on Rincon brine processing history, here is an interesting post from 2017 that a few LTers may remember that summarises the players and failures:
(Dyor on costs/pricing and economic feasibility back then)
——
What follows is information in the public domain about the Rincon saga.
In the early 1990’s Rincon was investigated by academics of the University of Salta that studied the Li brines in the south of the salar, near to where AGY is now proposing to develop its mines. They were following the developments of the lithium mines in Atacama, Chile.
In 1993-1995 a local entrepreneur, Compañía Minera Party, invested in a Li recovery plant that failed because the high magnesium and calcium content made the process uneconomic. Pablo Alurralde was “Director del Proyecto de Litio” of this company.
The centre and north sections of Rincon were acquired by Admiralty Resources NL that conceptualized a traditional Li recovery process in 2003 and built two demonstration pilot plants. The second pilot plant, built in the salar, produced about 10 tonnes of battery grade 99.5% lithium carbonate from ponds that covered one square kilometre. Despite the high Li content and large volume of brines, the process was shown not to be economic because of the magnesium and calcium content of the brines.
On Dec 2008, the Sentient Group acquired Rincon Lithium Ltd from Admiralty Resources NL. Sentient is a mining investment fund, the brainchild of Dr. Peter Cassidy. The four founding partners of Sentient originated from AMP Life Insurance in Australia. Sentient operates a number of funds, one of which, Sentient GP III LP, bought Rincon.
Under the stewardship of Sentient, Rincon built a larger demonstration plant that produced 1200 tonnes per year of battery grade 99.5% lithium carbonate, again using the conventional evaporation process.
Between 2008 and 2010, Rincon acquired a number of other lithium properties in Argentina.
In 2010, Sentient purchased Orbitas, a company that recycles conventional lead batteries in Wagga Wagga from its founder, Wayne Richardson.
In 2010, Sentient divested it properties in Argentina – as well as other investments elsewhere - into the Enirgi Group Corporation, a privately held company based in Toronto, Canada. Sentient owns 100% of Enirgi.
Wayne Richardson was appointed Chairman and CEO of Enirgi.
Soon after taking control, Richardson mothballed the Rincon Demonstration Plant as uneconomical as the cost of removing the magnesium and calcium was too high.
Richardson engaged ANSTO to develop a new lithium recovery process. A 1500 tons per year new demonstration plant was built in Lucas Height, NSW, and delivered to Rincon in Feb 2017. The ANSTO process recovered Li from the brines as lithium phosphate, a method first used around 1946 in Searles Lake, California, by the American Potash & Chemical Corp that obtained US patent 2,608,465. American Potash abandoned it as uneconomic in 1978 after having produced 900 tonnes of Li phosphate over a period of 30 years. Incidentally, this process is similar to the one proposed by POSCO, also abandoned as uneconomical.
In Feb 2017, Enirgi sold all of its Li properties in Argentina – except Rincon – to LSC Lithium Corporation that was listed in the TSX in March 2017. Wayne Richardson was appointed Chairman and CEO of LSC in addition to be Chairman and CEO of Enirgi. In March this year, Enirgi announced the construction of a 50,000 tpa plant using the ANSTO technology.
On 15 November 2017, LSC announced to the TSX that Wayne Richardson was no longer Director and Chairman of LSC. At the same time, Mr Tim Goldsmith – ex partner of PwC and well known in Australian mining circles - was appointed interim President and CEO of Energi. No reasons have been made public about this and other changes in both companies.
In summary, Rincon has a quarter of a century trajectory and at least four failed attempts at exploiting its Li.
It is to be hoped this time AGY succeeds were other have failed.
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/rincon-use-it-or-lose-it.3862688/page-64?post_id=29300282—-
We’ve come a long way, and there are no easy shortcuts it would seem.
GLA
Imo
Dyor
