12 Appendix C –
Current and Planned Energy Metals Investment
12.1 Current Tianqi Lithium Hydroxide Processing Plant
China’s Tianqi Lithium Australia Pty Ltd (Tianqi) is currently developing a two (2) stage lithium hydroxide processing plant (battery grade) in the KIA. Construction of the $400m first stage began in October 2016, with completion due in late 2018. Due to increasing demand for lithium hydroxide for down-stream processing, particularly in China, Tianqi initiated a second stage to the plant in late 2017, increasing the investment in the processing plant to approximately $700m. This will see the plants’ production double to 48k tonnes per annum, and an increase the permanent workforce to 170. 87
42
Figure 42: Tianqi battery grade lithium hydroxide processing plant, Kwinana
Source: Tianqi Lithium Australia Pty Ltd Galaxy Resources - Mt Cattlin
87 Smith, S (2017), Tianqi backs WA with $300m Kwinana lithium expansion, 27 October 2017, The West Australian, https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/tianqi-backs-wa-with-300m-kwinana-lithium-expansion-ng-b88641905z . (Accessed: 01 May 2018) 88 Galaxy Lithium (2018), Mt Cattlin, http://www.galaxylithium.com/projects/mt-cattlin . (Accessed: 01 May 2018) Galaxy Resources wholly owns the Mt Cattlin spodumene project, located two (2) kilometres north of the town of Ravensthorpe. Previously Galaxy was mining pegmatite ore at Mt Cattlin which was processed on site to produce a spodumene concentrate and a tantalum by-product. At full capacity, ore can be processed at a rate of one million tonnes per annum (tpa) with lithium oxide concentrate production of 137,000 tpa and 56,000 pounds (lbs) per annum of contained tantalum. The first shipments of lithium concentrate began in early 2017 bound for China for further downstream processing. 88
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