Assuming Adina Phase One was to produce say 320 ktpa of concentrate, which is what about what Allkem will produce at James Bay Phase One and about twice that Nemaska Lithium has said it will produce from Whabouchi - for context Kathleen Valley is set to produce 500 ktpa - and assuming a conversion rate from concentrate to carbonate of 8 (which Fastmarkets has done), if they built a carbonate plant up near the Adina mine they would still be hauling something like 40ktpa of material down to the rail head. 40ktpa is not quite the scale of "mere kgs" that you suggested. La Grande Alliance already has plans to complete the Route 167 up to the Trans Taiga Highway so it is a matter of when not if. The sooner the road is completed the sooner Winsome can save substantially on haulage costs on production from Adina and in my view it is a material business risk were the extension be delayed.
As to the idea of building a carbonate plant up near Adina, I know Iggy Tan has been mouthing off about doing what no one else apparently has thought of doing and that is build a carbonate plant in northern Quebec. I note that he and his crew are experienced in upstream mining in WA, not chemicals production in the tundra. Everyone else active in Quebec lithium seems to have concluded that it is better to build the mid-stream chemicals plants down south where the people and industry are already. It is true that Sayona is thinking of finishing off their half-built carbonate plant at the NAL hub but that is because it looks to be cheaper to finish what was already started than to begin from scratch again. In any case the NAL hub is in the south of Quebec, not a thousand k's north where Adina is.
Anyway, my view is that even if they built a carbonate plant up north Winsome would still want to send its product south to the railhead at Chibougamau then to send it west and then south to the railhead at Matagami. But for that to be possible the La Grande Alliance would need to extend Route 167 up to the Trans Taiga Highway.
Mate, you are one of the dozy posters I referred to in my previous post that drench the WR1 threads with dross. To me, Chris Evans has been crystal clear that currently they have assay results that indicate about 50 Mt and they expect that with the next 50 km of drilling they will JORC that number up to just over 100 Mt in early calendar 2024. On that MRE they will move into a preliminary economic assessment and so on and so on. It is only a small bunch of you on these threads that keep trying to take the discourse into fantasy land.
Just one question for you: you do realise that when people in Australia talk of MRE and JORC they are effectively referring to the same thing, yes?
WR1 Price at posting:
$1.48 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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