Neometals is targeting international markets outside China for product from its proposed Kalgoorlie lithium refinery. Mr Reed said he remains confident the plant, which if approved will be built just 5km outside of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, will be a long term business opportunity for the mining company turned battery metals technologist. Neometals banked its first $6.2 million profit distribution from its minority owned Mt Marion lithium mine, 40km south-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, yesterday.

The Growing Kalgoorlie-Boulder Economic Development Conference jumped out of the blocks in the morning session, with lithium miner Neometals revealing its plans to build a new lithium refinery 5km outside Kalgoorlie-Boulder township. In a major economic shale-up for the Goldfields region, the downstream processing plant will create more than 100 jobs and the capacity to produce an initial 10,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually – a substance crucial to the battery making process.

Lithium is poised to become a key plank of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s mining economy, following minerals developer Neometals’ decision to base a proposed $200 million lithium refinery in the WA gold capital. Neometals boss Chris Reed yesterday revealed the company had executed a two-year option to sub-lease a 40ha industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie, on the northern side of Great Eastern Highway, for the 10,000 tonne-a-year lithium hydroxide plant. Speaking at the Growing Kalgoorlie-Boulder 2018 Economic Development Conference in Perth, Mr Reed said the proposed site was well situated, 70km from its part-owned Mt Marion lithium mine, and provided an opportunity to minimise costs while capitalising on the lithium market rise.

Battery materials company Neometals is on the hunt for an off-take partner after selecting a site near Kalgoorlie for the latest lithium hydroxide plant slated for construction in Western Australia. Neometals has signed an option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sublease a 40 hectare site for a 10,000 tonne-a-year lithium hydroxide plant. It is estimated such a plant would cost close to $200 million to build and bring total potential processing capacity in WA to more than 200,000 tonnes a year. 

WA-based lithium miner Neometals is evaluating the prospects of constructing a lithium hydroxide plant near Kalgoorlie, announcing to the ASX earlier this week the appointment of Germany’s M+W Group to conduct an engineering study for the plant. Neometals, which has offtake agreements in place with Ganfeng for production for the first stage of operations at its Mt Marion mine, is expected to make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the facility early next year. The company is seeking to build the processing facility to gain a cost advantage over its competitors, particularly in transport, shipping and duty savings.

Neometals managing director Chris Reed said, like electric vehicles, lithium had become an extremely China-centric story, largely because most of the world’s lithium processing capacity was located in China, or was controlled by Chinese companies. Ramping up processing and manufacturing capacity by Chinese players, Mr Reed said, had made lithium one of the most active spots in WA’s minerals sector in recent years, with three new mines coming online last year and another five expected to start producing by the end of 2019.

Recycling lithium material from used electric vehicle batteries promises to be even more profitable than mining the increasingly valuable metal, according to an Australian producer building a test facility in Canada. Perth-based Neometals Ltd. is working to recover raw materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper from expired batteries at a facility in Montreal, aiming to add production from recycling to its existing output from mining. “What we are hoping to prove in the pilot plant is that it does provide a better net margin,” Chief Operating Officer Mike Tamlin said in a phone interview. “The numbers look far and away better than if you are doing a primary extraction from an ore.â€.

Arlington research (attached) says Neometals’ battery recycling technology could be transformative.