The Roasting process that Sileach, L-max etc aims to eliminate...

The Roasting process that Sileach, L-max etc aims to eliminate probably constituents about 10% of the lithium carbonate manufacturing process cost. We still don't know whether these processes use more or less acid, which is also a high cost in the lithium conversion process. The cost of caustic soda is by far the largest cost in the whole process, so these new technologies offer little advantage if you can 1) get cheap power 2) get cheap caustic soda 3) get cheap acid.

I'm sure lithium converters will be more interested in getting high grade lithium oxide concentrate than they are about trying to process low grade ore with marginally better processing technology. Ore bodies with high mica need to work a lot harder to produce sellable lithium oxide concentrate.