Infinity Lithium Corporation has pivoted to an underground mining plan in a bid to win local support for its proposed San José lithium project near the city of Cáceres in the Extremadura region of Spain.
The company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Extremadura New Energies, has been invited to present its redesigned development proposal to the Extremadura Regional Government and the Cáceres City Council.
Its San José lithium project houses one of Europe's largest JORC-compliant hard-rock lithium deposits with a 111 million tonne resource going 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.
The company says the mayor of Cáceres, Luis Salaya, proposed the technical presentation of the project for assessment, saying “when a new project is proposed, we are not opposed to it. We are in favour of checking that things are done well and that they are legal”.
The city council has noted the repositioning of the project is a success for Cáceres.
Infinity Lithium originally proposed an open pit mine however last year the company undertook a scoping study to evaluate an underground-only mining operation minimising the impact on the environment and community stakeholders.
The company believes the study has shown the potential for an underground mine to generate increased quantities of battery-grade lithium chemicals whilst reducing the need for surface tailings and preventing any major visible impact from the mine.
Extremadura New Energies Chief Executive Officer, Ramón Jiménez Serrano said: “We welcome the invitation and opportunity to collaborate with government and local stakeholders to ensure all facets of the project are presented in line with the highest levels of societal and environmental compliance. The willingness to address alternative formal avenues is a major step forward as all parties seek to resolve a pathway to delivery of a world-class project to cornerstone Extremadura’s lithium-ion battery value chain.”
The company says the city council and the regional government have both endorsed the requirement for an environmentally sustainable project that will benefit the city and the region.
Through its scoping study, Infinity Lithium has estimated the net present value of the combined project at US$811.7 million.
The company says the project will spit out US$190m a year for 26 years in net cashflows from the production of 19,500 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide annually.
The project is a fully integrated industrial operation centred on the manufacturing of battery-grade lithium compounds from a mica feedstock.
Infinity’s proposal is different from standard hard-rock lithium mining operations that typically mine the lithium on site before sending it in a concentrated form to a lithium hydroxide manufacturer – generally to China.
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By Matt Birney
