Emerging Australian Lithium developer Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) has received expressions of interest from a number of parties for the potential sale of fine lithium; a by-product of producing high-quality lithium concentrate from the Company’s Finniss Lithium Project near Darwin in the NT. Sale of these products was not included in the recently released DFS for Finniss. Binding offtake commitments are expected in the coming months.
Emerging Australian Lithium developer Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) has received expressions of interest from a number of parties for the potential sale of fine lithium; a by-product of producing high-quality lithium concentrate from the Company’s Finniss Lithium Project near Darwin in the NT.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Expressions of interest recently received from multiple parties in purchasing additional fine lithium (FL) product from Core’s Finniss Lithium Project
· 200,000 to 250,000tpa FL forecast to be producedas a by-product
· Sale of FL products not included in recent DFS
· Low incremental cost ofproduction of FL
· Core’s transport cost from mine to Darwin Port is onlyUS$7/t
· Indicative pricing of between $US50/t and US$75/t of FL
· FL sales have potential to add significant revenues to the project at a high margin
· Core aiming to complete binding offtake of FL in coming months
As defined in Core’s recent DFS, Core is targeting production of 175,000tpa of high-quality lithium concentrate from Finniss commencing in 2020. In addition, between 200,000tpa and 250,000tpa of FL is planned to be sold as a by-product of the concentrate process through Core’s Dense Media Separation (DMS) plant.
The FL product was initially planned to be stored for processing at a later date, but in response to recent expressions of interest, Core is considering adding potential sales of FL to the revenues of the Finniss Lithium Project.
As a by-product, FL incurs only a low marginal increase in operating cost, and because Core’s Finniss Project is located only 30km from Port Darwin, Core’s cost of transport of bulk lithium product from mine to port is only US$7/t.
Core is undertaking further studies on FL product preparation and transport. Indicative pricing of US$50/t-US$75/t for sales of 200,000tpa to 250,000tpa of FL is likely to add significant and material additional revenues (with a high margin) to the Finniss Project for the life of the project.
Further updates on FL offtake and will be made in due course.
Core’s Managing Director, Stephen Biggins, commented: “The addition of fine lithium to the suite of saleable products is likely to materially improve the economics of what is already a very good project.
“We are already mining and partially processing this material anyway as we produce spodumene concentrate. There is little extra work that needs to be done to add significant revenue to the project.
“Core is well advanced with debt financiers in addition to finalising offtake terms in coming months.”