"White House energy advisor John Podesta and a throng of other dignitaries attended a long-awaited ground-breaking on Friday for an innovative, $1.85 billion lithium extraction and geothermal power plant at the dusty southern edge of the Salton Sea." (Link below)
$1.85 billion for a geothermal plant that will produce "about 40 megawatts of steam power, then separate raw lithium out of the waste stream, and produce an expected 25,000 metric tons of commercial-grade lithium hydroxide each year." No mention of operating costs but they must be low enough for them to decide to commit to construction with lithium prices where they currently sit.
This is the best part for Phoenix though. Vulcan Energy's DFS showed that the geothermal plant makes up a large part of capex. Well costs would also be significant. Vulcan's DFS had capex of 657mill Euro for geothermal and 839mill Euro for lithium but they have some existing geothermal capacity and infrastructure (2 producing wells, etc) so the ratio might be closer to or above 1:1 geothermal to Li for CTR or anyone starting without any pre-existing geothermal plant/infrastructure. Back to the Salton Sea for CTR and Phoenix - If a 40MW geothermal plant plus LiH plant in the Salton Sea that uses brine to produce electricity can also extract lithium and produce 25,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide at a capex of approximately $1.85billion as for CTR, then it should follow that; the same sized geothermal plant, possibly similar number of wells (depending on flow rates) with only the LiH plant perhaps needing some parts that are larger in size to process the higher volumes of lithium produced, then a 40MW geothermal plant in East Brawley for Phoenix with a lithium grade double that of the Salton Sea, should be able to produce around 50,000tpa of lithium hydroxide from the same amount of brine from the same size geothermal plant and probably at a fairly similar capital cost. The operating cost per tonne of lithium should also be much lower if the grade is doubled.
East Brawley offers double the lithium production for the same size geothermal plant, possibly same number of wells and therefore probably only a relatively small increase in capex as well as probably significantly lower operating cost. I.e. the potential for 50,000tpa lithium for possibly around $2bill capex compared to $1.85bill capex for 25,000tpa lithium for CTR. In both cases, the extra capex for the geothermal would be repaid from the profits from the sale of the green electricity. Vulcan's DFS for phase 1 in 2023 used a reserve grade of 181mg/L which is around 10% below Salton Sea grades. Phoenix's grades are more than double both Vulcan's and the Salton Sea grades. Vulcan expected lithium hydroxide operating costs of 4359 euro which is approx US$4745/t. At more than double the grade, Phoenix might be able to do much better.
If a large player wanted to acquire an asset in the area, the one with the largest land area, resource size and double the grade is going to be much more valuable to them in terms of required capex and expected opex as well as production volume potential.
