LPD Event: Melb 24-MAY - RACV theatrette, page-93

Hi@Stewart18, busy this morning?! Well done.

1) Your capex query

The short answer is we don't know. The PFS mentions sodium sulphate as a potential by-product, but we don't know if the cost of the crystalliser was included in the capital cost estimate, as it wasn't confirmed as a by-product until Lycopodium finished the design of the plant:

http://www.lepidico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/LPD-171222-Lycopodium-completes-engineered-design-for-Phase-1-Plant.pdf

So we don't know if it is correct to remove that cost from the PFS capital estimate, as it may not have been in there in the first place.

As @sqe as pointed out, you also need to factor in the increased capacity of the plant, which will increase the costs. Joe has previously said in a media article that they would increase but not double, so @sqe may be on the right track there, we don't know.

We also don't know if the PFS included the cost of a concetrator for the mine. The model seems to have been based on buying feed rather than mining it ourselves, so that may be an additional cost to add in.

Lastly, ICAD is supposed to offer material capex savings as well, so that needs to be factored in.

This is why I asked if we could get an updated PFS a few few weeks ago, and I hope we do get one in a few months. There are so many moving parts, it is impossible to know where it has all landed.


2) Your lithium metal query

I'm no chemist so I can't say for sure, but I believe swapping the whole process to hydrochloric acid would mean going back to square one and starting again with bench tests, pilot plant etc. I have read that you can get from lithium sulphate (which LPD already has) to lithium chloride with the right precipitation agent.

I believe the right agent would be sodium chloride (don't quote me on that, I'm relying on high school chemistry here), otherwise known as table salt.

I have asked if there is any work being done on chloride a few times, and I haven't received much of an answer. I suspect that is too far down the track for the team to worry about just now.


@R08, that's very kind of you, thank you. Glad I can be of use to others.


@SpK87 the impression I get is that Sudbury is still very much a contender for the future, but they have dragged their feet for too long and the team ran out of patience. I think P1 seems very likely to be in Abu Dhabi and I suspect P2 may be built in Sudbury following a modular build-out approach. That's just a theory.


Cheers