Good find Kit - I also just noticed this news item on KDR thread. Surly must be why the gas is needed & fast tracked at that! Looking promising!
"A Chinese company wants to build a $400 million plant in Kwinana capable of processing lithium - the key ingredient in new-generation batteries such as those used in cars like Tesla.
China’s Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries already controls a majority stake in the Greenbushes mine, one of the world’s premier producers of lithium concentrate.
Development plans for the plant will tomorrow go before a State Government development assessment panel.
It is understood the Tianqi board will make a final decision on giving the project the go-ahead in China next week.
If approved, construction could start within a month. The plant would become WA’s first major downstream processing operation in years.
WA is home to some of the world's best-known lithium deposits and miners are racing to be the suppliers of a growing demand in China and beyond.
The planned Kwinana plant would be capable of producing 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide a year. It would be fed by about 161,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate trucked from Greenbushes.
Tianqi wants production to start within two years.
Greenbushes already supplies more than a third of global demand for lithium.
In addition to lithium hydroxide, destined for battery plants overseas, the facility would produce about 44,000t a year of sodium sulphate for export, along with 176,000t of aluminosilicate and 26,000t of gypsum as by-products to be sold into the local construction and agricultural industries.
Two new WA lithium mines are likely to begin exporting concentrate this year, with the Mt Marion mine near Kalgoorlie – owned by Mineral Resources, Neometals and China’s Ganfeng Lithium – and Galaxy Resources’ Mt Cattlin operation both undergoing fine tuning before exports begin.
A host of other players in the Pilbara and the South West are also racing to develop lithium projects in time to take advantage of the emerging boom in demand for the commodity."
EGO Price at posting:
35.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
