Galaxy sells 120,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate to Chinese customers  

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Image credit: Galaxy Resources website

Galaxy Resources has sold 120,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate from the Mt Cattlin Project in WA to chemical converters in China who produce both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.

Image credit: Galaxy Resources website

Under the agreement, the China-based buyers will pay US$830 per tonne (FOB, minimum 5.5% Li2O), as well as an additional US$15/t for every 0.1% improvement in grade Li2O delivered, resulting in an agreed price of up to US$905/t for a 6% lithium concentrate.

Galaxy’s current guidance for 2017 is for 160,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate production, based on an approximate 50% recovery. According to the company, this production level will satisfy both the 2016 orders, as well as the abovementioned orders, scheduled for delivery in 2017.

The company’s Managing Director, Anthony Tse, said Galaxy had experienced “very strong interest” from a wide range of customers since the planned restart of the Mr Catlin Project and significant demand for the project’s planned production.

Adertisement

He said Galaxy will continue working to improve recovery at the Mt Cattlin processing plant and with any incremental production available in the future, it will look to place such volume to existing and/or new customers.

“The Mt Catlin team will be working on a number of initiatives through the course of 2017, with objective of increasing production recovery above and beyond the initially targeted 50% level, to provide its customers with the volume and quality of product they require as they continue to grow,” Mr Tse added.

“Initial lithium concentrate production has produced Li2O grades ranging from 5.8% to 6.4%. This product quality has been achieved as a result of the design changes that have been made to the processing plant flowsheet and represents a significant improvement in specifications over that of the historical product from Mt Catlin when it previously operated.”