yep, you got it wrong. LPD: $350/t 29,000t for 3,000t Li2CO3...

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juk

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12/05/17

13:34

Post #: 24652578
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Originally posted by mjp2 ↑

I was trying to assess the US$350/t of concentrate cost used in the LPD study, against the $36/t Run of Mine cost for mining plus front end comminution and benefication costs in the EMH study.

Otherwise we don't know if the concentrate input costs for the LPD study are comparable with the EMH PFS.

We also need to check if the concentrate grades in the two studies are comparable.

The EMH study processes 1.7Mtpa or ROM ore to produce 20,800tpa of LiCarbonate - via 360kt of mica concentrate. That's all from the EMH feasibility study.
So adjusting the EMH PFS mining and FECAB costs of $36/t ROM to a concentrate cost ...
=> $36*1700/360 = $170/t of concentrate.

Now check the concentrate grades.

EMH starts with a 0.4% Li ore, so presumably the EMH concentrate is at around 0.4*1700/360 = 1.9%. Again just using the ore to concentrate ratio of the PFS. Perhaps the grade might be less, as they may not get 100% Li recovery? But I'll stick with that to be conservative in favour of the LPD numbers.

The Lmax study concentrate is 4.5% Li (vs 2.1% in their testwork) - this is given immediately below the Table 4 that 2Chance has used from their PFS.

So:

1. The EMH concentrate is at a lower grade of Li compared to that used in the LPD study

Adjusting for that lower concentrate grade suggests the EMH equivalent concentrate cost would be 170*4.5/1.9 = $402/t of concentrate
So the EMH PFS post mining and benefication etc concentrate cost is 15% more costly than the $350 used in the LPD study

2. With that advantage of cheaper, higher grade concentrate the LPD pre-feasibility study comes in at $3000/t of Li Carbonate.
vs
the EMH PFS cost of $3483/t

But LPD are processing much better grade concentrate to achieve that, so would be processing much less concentrate. That strongly suggests they'd be significantly more expensive if they were dealing with the lower grade EMH input concentrate because of the greater volume they'd need to process.

So, if my calcs, inputs and logic are correct, I suspect this falls pretty solidly in favour of EMH's chosen processing route. LPD are getting their lower PFS cost while processing significantly less concentrate than they would need to with the actual EMH concentrate, and while using a lower equivalent concentrate input cost for that higher grade concentrate as well.

Happy for that to be pulled apart and critiqued, but this seems to suggest to me that Keith is correct with his choice.

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yep, you got it wrong.

LPD:
$350/t
29,000t
for
3,000t Li2CO3
=$3,383/t of lithium carbonate.

for EMH, straight out of Table 5, cost of concentrate is:
Mining $1,960
Plus FECAB $935
Minus Sn/W -$1,404
= $1,401/t of lithium carbonate.

So EMH should make almost $2,000/t more than LPD if they used L-Max per tonne of Li2CO3 not accounting for economies of scale. The grade issue is roughly six of one and half a dozen of the other when it comes to head grade Vs byproducts. Zinnwaldite can be considered roughly equivalent to Lepidolite. And there should be more tantalite in the zinnwaldite since it's a mag sep to produce it.

Last edited by juk: 12/05/17

EMH Price at posting: 93.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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