Hi Folks, I found an update on proceedings up the road at the...

Hi Folks, I found an update on proceedings up the road at the Sentient/Enirgi/Rincon Ltd site. This is an Argentine news story from late October. Apologies if this was already posted in some other thread, but it belongs here.

Apparently Rincon Ltd (formerly Enirgi) announced an investment decision in early October (to the workers at the plant) and plan to tender for construction at end of this year (2018). Regarding the source: according to Wikipedia, El Tribuno is an Argentine newspaper and media group from Salta Province. The tabloid is the only newspaper in Salta Province.

https://www.eltribuno.com/salta/nota/2018-10-21-0-6-0-la-planta-de-litio-del-salar-del-rincon-sera-de-25-000-toneladas-y-se-licitara-a-fin-de-ano

Google translate version follows...

OCTOBER 21, 2018 - 01:17

The Salar del Rincón lithium plant will be 25,000 tons and will be put out to tender at the end of the year. The works will start in 2019. The investment will be around 600 million dollars. Four organisms evaluate the method that will be used to process the ore. 

By Antonio Oieni     

In the Salar del Rincón, 20 kilometers from the Paso de Sico, since last May a modular lithium carbonate plant has been used to test a new method that dispenses with traditional evaporation tanks and shortens processing times.

These facilities, which crowned five years of investments and technical trials, are the mainstay of one of the most advanced lithium projects in the Puna of Salta, where Rincón Mining, a company of Canadian capital and based in Australia, plans to produce 25,000 tons per year. of the key input of electromobility, the digital revolution and renewable energies since mid-2021. 

The strong points of the Salar del Rincón are its proximity to National Route 51, the InterAndes electrical transmission system and the ports of northern Chile, although the lithium content of its brines - of the order of 400 milligrams per liter - are below from other salt flats in the region, such as Atacama, which sets the highest reference with 1,200 milligrams per liter.

Even so, the extraction technology tested in the modular plant of the Salar del Rincón would put the western project of Salta in the best levels of competitiveness. The general manager of Rincon Mining, Alejandro Moro, remarked that the direct processing method "was a necessary step to achieve the viability of the project and ensure its financing." 

Moro, an electromechanical engineer graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and a master's degree in business administration and management from the University of Pennsylvania, joined the Rincón project in January 2017 after holding executive positions in Australia for 15 years. Today heads in Salta the new strategic direction of Rincón Ltd, the Canadian capital mining company that was known until February of this year as Enirgi Group Corporation and had as a subsidiary in the province the company Ady Resource (now called Rincon Mining).

All lithium tokens 

As part of its restructuring, the group decided to divest itself of the international assets it had in Australia and the United States to pour the funds into the development of the lithium.

A couple of weeks ago, the board of the parent company met in Salta and its president, John Hikc [Sic], traveled to the Salar del Rincón, where he ratified the investment plan of nearly 600 million dollars before the hundred workers of the plant.

The company is preparing to tender at the end of the year the construction of a plant with a capacity to produce 25,000 tons per year of lithium carbonate. Moro explained that "the decision to divide the volume of production reported in 2016 in two phases was taken to reduce the investment risk".

Initially, a plant of 50,000 tons per year was planned, but next year 25,000 tons will be built and another one of equal capacity will be added two years later.

The general manager of Rincon Mining said that the bidding of the first of the plants will be called Argentine and international companies. The start of the works is scheduled for mid-2019. In the two years of execution will be occupied about a thousand workers in the area. 

The project aroused many expectations and strong adhesion in the communities of a region historically postponed, although the new processing method, tested in the modular plant of the Salar del Rincón and endorsed by external consultants, still has 44 observations that marked the Mining Secretariats , Environment, Water Resources and Industry of the Province in the study of impacts presented by the company in June. 

"Next week we will respond to the observations with a writing of 500 pages", said Moro, who assured that "the production of the Salar del Rincón will conform to the norms, standards and international best practices for the protection of the environment, the health and industrial safety. "

The Secretary of Mining, Daniel Blanco, highlighted the scope of the Salar del Rincón project and the novelty of the method, which foresees the use of reagents in a closed cycle to avoid negative impacts on the salt. He clarified that the observations made are part of a regular procedure in which "the company must demonstrate that there will be no significant environmental or social impact to obtain permission to start the works." The area has certified resources of 8.3 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in measured, indicated and inferred terms, and a useful life of between 25 and 40 years.