Lepidico Australians want lithium in Portuguese
05/27/2018 at 10:00 a.m
The mines of the Yellow Pebble (Guarda) are in the sights of the autralianos
NUNO BOTELHO
Lithium mine near Guarda prompts increasing interest among international investors
VÍTOR ANDRADE
There is another Australian mining company interested in Portuguese lithium. Responsible for the multinational Lepidico, based in Perth, on the west coast of Australia, were in Lisbon this week where they met with government officials, mayors and managers of Felmica, one of the main operators in the lithium area in Portugal.
Expresso said that the company has links to fund manager Oxy Capital, which now holds a majority stake in the Mota Mineral group (owner of Felmica and its mining concessions). The meeting will have served to clarify how far the collaboration between Lepidico and Felmica in the area of lithium exploration can go, and for now, to exclude a sale of the Portuguese company to the Australian mining multinational.
Some sources in the sector advanced to Expresso that Oxy Capital even allowed the separate sale of several companies of that group. Something that Oxy's source says has no basis.
Of course, Lepidico - after its Australian competitors Dakota Minerals and Slipstream - is also interested in mining lithium in Portugal.
The reason is very simple: global demand for this raw material continues to increase from year to year and the price per ton (of lithium carbonate) has gone from US $ 5,000 at the beginning of 2016 to US $ 15,000. the first months of 2018.
5TH WORLD PRODUCER
Some international studies of banks, financial consultants and even oil companies point to a real 'trigger' in the search for electric cars in the next decade, from the current about 2 million cars to 20 million by 2030. This may require six times more carbonate lithium than is currently used in the world market.
As the batteries of electric cars are precisely lithium-based and, on the other hand, as Portugal is the 5th largest producer of this raw material (according to the latest report of the US Geological Survey), it is easy to see - according to several analysts contacted by Expresso - the desirability of several multinational mining companies in Portugal.
It should be remembered, however, that the lithium explored at the Yellow Seixo mine (Gonçalo - Guarda) is not directly directed to the automotive industry. In fact, it is almost all routed to the ceramics industry, in the form of lithium concentrate, where it is used as a flux. It is mixed with the base raw materials used to make the ceramics so that the optimum melting point for processing is reached. This means energy savings and, as a consequence, considerable reductions of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere.
The chemical content of lithium in the ore mined in Portugal rarely exceeds the threshold of 1% (one kilogram of lithium in every 100 kilograms of litter collected). There follows a chemical process of enriching the lithium concentrate in the order of 4 to 10 times the initial content, depending on whether it is from richer or poorer ore, respectively.
The metallurgical process is intended to destroy the crystalline structure of the lithium-bearing minerals to release this metal from the bonds to other elements. A complex operation requiring processing temperatures above 800 ° C. Compounds with the so-called 'technical content' below 99%, or with the 'battery content' of the order of 99.5%, or even of 'high purity', above 99.9%. But this is not yet done in Portugal.
There are those who admit, however, that Lepidico Australians may want to invest in this industrial phase of the lithium cycle.
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