Translated to English from the following link.
http://huellaminera.com/2018/10/destacan-apoyo-oficial-sal-vida/
COUNTRY
Outstanding support for Sal de Vida
MINERA FOOTPRINT
MINING FOOTPRINT
The executive said that the first production is planned for the year 2022.
The province of Catamarca has mining as one of its most important points in the production, and this is in view given the undertakings that are in exploration or more advanced stage throughout the territory. One of them is the "Sal de Vida" mining project located in the department of Antofagasta de la Sierra, in the heart of Puna Catamarca.
This project is considered one of the most important, so it is necessary to combine the work between the private and the public, in this case the Government of Catamarca. It was the own Managing Director and CEO of Galaxy Lithium, Anthony Tse (photo) who analyzed it in an interview with the Panorama Mining environment.
Tse highlighted the relationship with the provincial government, arguing that "we have a very strong and interactive relationship with the Government of Catamarca, which has greatly supported our Sal de Vida Project," adding that "we will base the headquarters of our operations in the city of Catamarca and we also hope to build in other places in the province to organize support logistics, as well as the camp and operations in Salar del Hombre Muerto. "
"We have been very encouraged by the level of positive support to build the project there, and all the local stakeholders have helped us a lot," he said.
On the project, the executive said that "Sal de Vida has a useful life of 40 years. Our plan is to build the Project for the next 3-3.5 years, aiming for the first production by 2022 and, eventually, producing 25,000 tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate after reaching the design value. "
Regarding the US $ 280 million of the transaction with POSCO - this company sold him part of the project - Anthony Tse indicated that this amount "will be fully applied to the financing requirements of the Project, which currently has an estimated US $ 474 million in capital expenditures plus working capital. Galaxy is currently carrying out a process with its financial advisors, JP Morgan, to evaluate the strategic options, with the aim of attracting a minority joint venture partner to finance the balance of the capital requirements. "
Another point to which the CEO of Galaxy Lithium mentioned was about the companies in the lithium market, indicating that "Galaxy acquired Sal de Vida in 2012, but the project itself is between 9 and 10 years old. What many other companies do not appreciate is that there is a lot of work and investment that have to go to the development of a project; It's not as simple as acquiring a property and finding some lithium to conclude that you have a project. "
"Sal de Vida is now at a stage in which our objective will be to complete the financing of the Project by the end of this year, with a construction period of 3 years beginning in 2019. The current estimated CAPEX is US $ 474 million and with working capital, the total investment required will be more than US $ 500 million, "he said.
"In the progress of a project, there is a lot of work to be done and steps to be taken before starting construction, and there is also a need for capital. We believe that lithium resources in Argentina really have great potential, but I think that many of our similar projects will require many years of investment before we can begin construction. "
"The country will improve ..."
Anthony Tse analyzed the situation of the country, considering that "despite all the external noise of the country, the challenges facing the government to manage the economy in the next two years, I am still very positive in the long-term outlook", noting that "we will undoubtedly see that the country will go through more cycles, but we will also see that the country will improve for periods during the life of the Project".
"Given this point of view, Galaxy has committed itself psychologically to continue forward and complete the financing, as well as to carry out advanced works in engineering, civil works, wells, pilot plants, etc.", he said.
Finally, the executive said that at the national level he introduced some export tariffs, but that they believe that "such measures will be temporary, as part of the government's efforts to stabilize the recent economic situation. It is expected that these new tariffs will be in effect for the next two years, and since Sal de Vida will not be in production until 2022, we do not expect these export tariffs to have any impact on the Project's cash flows once it is in production. "
The Ski
