Galan Lithium says it has produced a premium-quality lithium chloride concentrate from its Hombre Muerto West project pilot plant in Argentina, with samples ready to distribute to potential offtake partners.
The company’s concentrate product contains 6 per cent lithium – comparable to 13 per cent lithium oxide or 31.9 per cent lithium carbon equivalent (LCE).
Galan started piloting activities in April last year by filling the first evaporation pond of its existing pilot plant. It was done on only a small scale as the company worked on proving the process design for the Argentine project and providing samples to potential buyers.
Management now says the next stage in the pilot process is to achieve continuous production and feed a lithium carbonate plant, which is planned to be installed at the site next year.
With permits officially in place, Galan is moving forward with constructing its 250-person accommodation modules and expects the first phase of pond development to begin as soon as this quarter. About 80 per cent of the top-soil clearing for the main pond is completed.
Galan Lithium managing director Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega said: “To deliver a high quality product from our HMW piloting activities is just reward to the Galan team. It has proven our process model and design theories were correct – it can be done. Congratulations to the whole project team who have ploughed on, despite the ravages of winter, to achieve this sensational result.”
In May, the company revealed an increased mineral resource of 6.6 million tonnes of LCE at 880 milligrams per litre lithium at Hombre Muerto West. It also filled its coffers to the tune of $31.5 million from an institutional placement priced at $1.05 per share to help drive development at the Argentine project.
The placement funds will be used to purchase long-lead items for its proposed lithium carbonate pilot plant and the stage-two definitive feasibility study (DFS) at the project.
Management says its phase-one operation should turn out 5370 tonnes per annum of LCE and phase two will ramp up radically to a significant 20,000 tonnes of LCE. The lithium explorer is also considering its third and fourth phases that will ramp up production to as much as 60,000 tonnes per annum of LCE.
Stage one of the DFS was released earlier this month, with studies showing the project delivering an average annual EBITDA of AU$124 million a year for 40 years.
Galan has two world-class operations in the South American region known as the “Lithium Triangle” – its Hombre Muerto West and Candelas projects on the Hombre Muerto salar, which hosts the highest grade and lowest impurity levels of all lithium brines in Argentina.
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By Michael Philipps
