@Scarpa and anyone else willing to provide a serious response, I would like your further imput regarding understanding the potential supply of Lithium products from AVZs Manono project. I relistened to NFs audio interview to clarify his comments re the Hydroxide plant.
He definitely said they were looking to tack on a Hydroxide plant to the Spodumene plant and this would happen onsite in Manono. The figure he provided for a 5mtpa processor would create 1.1mtpa spodumene.
Do you think it is feasible to transport even 500,000 tpa Spodumene on the planned road to Manono given the planned quality and capacity of the road? IMHO given the limited pictures of the road under construction, it could hardly be considered high capacity or quality and with the ferocity of the annual wet seasons, would there be significant periods of the year the road would be unpassable even once sealed?
How many return truck trips would be required per day for 500000tpa? Surely we're not talking Australian style road trains? Have calculations been offered previously for this shorter leg of the journey?
On the topic of the onsite Hydroxide chemical plant. What quantities of reagents would need to be transported into Manono for a 40000tpa LiOH / 70000tp LiOH.H2O plant as well as those needed for the spodumene plant? Is there even supply within the DRC?
I've pointed out the obvious skilled labour shortage issues especially for the Hydroxide plant (Note the major challenges with securing enough lithium trained skilled labour faced in South America and China). These are highly technical jobs. Where will the workforce come from, and how difficult might it be to attract foreign workers to such a remote and feared location?
Finally, what impact could a Manono onsite Hydroxide plant have on the economic viability of the entire project if by nature a new Hydroxide plant in the most remote part of a country without a developed chemical processing industry is far less efficient than mainland China Hydroxide plants, which my well have been able to take greater advantage of the implied higher quality Spodumene resource? Would this erode any competitive advantage of the supposed low costs of extraction? I'd also note that it's hard to find examples of hard rock lithium projects meeting DFS costs of production after even several years and I believe none at the scale of the AVZ Manono scoping studies.
My biggest concerns going forward is currently the combination of NFs recent grandiose plans, lack of infrastructure and a perception that the DFS may prove it to be unviable. I don't want to harp on about the political environment, potential violence, and extreme corruption.
What im really looking for is someone to convincingly prove I'm wrong.
As always these are my honest perceptions and I'm not looking to offend.
Thanks in advance
DYOR
