Lithium research relevant to KDR/SQM, page-5

Originally posted by @mainholm:
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One needs to understand what the term LCE means. It is simply an industry standard term used for comparison of resource tonnage outputs across different types of mineral deposits and also for refinery outputs. I have pasted below the best explanation I found way back and can't remember the source so excuse not linking.

Lithium classification and conversion factors
Lithium grades are normally presented in percentages or parts per million (ppm). Grades of deposits are also expressed as lithium compounds in percentages, for example as a per cent. lithium oxide (Li₂O) content or per cent. lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) content.

Lithium carbonate equivalent (“LCE”) is the industry standard terminology for, and is equivalent to, Li₂CO₃. Use of LCE is to provide data comparable with industry reports and is the total equivalent amount of lithium carbonate, assuming the lithium content in the deposit is converted to lithium carbonate, using the conversion rates in the table included further below to get an equivalent Li₂CO₃ value in per cent. Use of LCE assumes 100% recovery and no process losses in the extraction of Li₂CO₃ from the deposit.

Lithium resources and reserves are usually presented in tonnes of LCE or Li. To convert the Li Inferred Mineral Resource of 514.8Mt @ 0.20% Li grade (as per the Competent Persons Report dated 2 November 2015) to Li₂O, the reported Li grade of 0.20% is multiplied by the standard conversion factor of 2.153 which results in an equivalent Li₂O grade of 0.43%.

Table: Conversion Factors for Lithium Compounds and Minerals:

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5
1	Convert from		Convert to Li	Convert to Li2O	Convert to Li2CO3
2	Lithium[/I]	Li	1,000	2,153	5,323
3	Lithium Oxide[/I]	Li2O	0,464	1,000	2,473
4	Lithium Carbonate[/I]	Li2CO3	0,188	0,404	1,000

Anyhow........... it is important to have at least the fundamental understanding about the difference between brine and hard rock mining when investing in lithium stocks. If one doesn't understand that brine mining produces Li2CO3 concentrate and hard rock mining produces Li2O concentrate in the form of spodumene then one has a lot of research and study to do. Not doing so would be unwise with regard to making investment decisions IMHO.

In this field of lithium resources it is basic knowledge to understand that hard rock miners produce a spodumene concentrate that varies from 4% up to 7.5% Li2O. The commercial grade to supply downstream refineries that produce battery grade LiOH and Li2CO3 is spodumene concentrate of 6% Li2O with a maximum content of 0.5% iron oxide.

Brine miners produce Li2CO3 as the concentrate product, but it has variable forms of impurities that need to be refined out by downstream refineries to get a purity level higher than 99.5% Li2CO3.

Spodumene concentrate is best for refining into LiOH and that resulting product is in most demand for the growing Li Ion battery industry.

I hope this post helps with basic understanding.