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Is it a conflation to mix greener lithium with lower CO2 footprint? Is it the same thing?

"open-pit mines and brine evaporation ponds" . The advantage for Oz is hard rock spodumene, but like most extractive industries, it seems a messy business. What are the concentrations of Lithium in the rock; about 1% to 1.5% tops? Current plans for the big 3 lithium hydroxide plants in WA are for concentration at mine site to about 6%, then shipment to the plants for processing. Wesfarmers and SQM are talking of 1 million tonnes of (benign) waste in tailings for the 50,000 tonne annual LiOH production. The others have similar numbers

Wesfarmers chief executive of chemicals, energy and fertilisers Ian Hansen said the producers believed a material known as delithiated beta spodumene could be repurposed instead of dumped, and is investigating if aggregate for road and building construction is viable. But at present, WES plans are to retruck the waste from Kwinana 550km back to the minesite.

Albemarle, which is well on the way to finishing its hydroxide plant at Kemerton, had to scrap plans to dump the tailings at a tip site near the farming town of Dardanup after a backlash from local residents. Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources, Albemarle’s junior partner in the Kemerton plant and the mothballed Wodgina lithium mine in the Pilbara, has since proposed carting the waste more than 550 kilometres out to its iron ore operations at Koolyanobbing.

Tianqi and partner IGO are due to start commissioning of their Kwinana plant and start production in late 2021. Not sure where their aluminosilicate waste will go.

The WA Environmental Protection Authority has approved plans for the tailings, but is there a better solution?

Pilbara Minerals are investigating the possibility of higher concentration of Lithium salts up to 35% through electric calcination (using Calix CLX technology) on site, such that the aluminosilicate waste remains on site (backfill?) then shipping concentrate to the processor. Of course, the PLS processor is in South Korea, so that is an upstream loss for WA.

<blockquote data-quote="Dona Ferentes" data-source="post: 1127122" data-attributes="member: 66457">Is it a conflation to mix greener lithium with lower CO2 footprint? Is it the same thing?&quot;open-pit mines and brine evaporation ponds&quot; . The advantage for Oz is hard rock spodumene, but like most extractive industries, it seems a messy business. What are the concentrations of Lithium in the rock; about 1% to 1.5% tops? Current plans for the big 3 lithium hydroxide plants in WA are for concentration at mine site to about 6%, then shipment to the plants for processing. Wesfarmers and SQM are talking of 1 million tonnes of&nbsp; (benign) waste in tailings for the 50,000 tonne annual LiOH production. The others&nbsp; have similar numbersWesfarmers chief executive of chemicals, energy and fertilisers Ian Hansen said the producers believed a material known as delithiated beta spodumene could be repurposed instead of dumped, and is investigating if aggregate for road and building construction is viable. But at present, WES plans are to retruck the waste from Kwinana 550km back to the minesite.Albemarle, which is well on the way to finishing its hydroxide plant at Kemerton, had to scrap plans to dump the tailings at a tip site near the farming town of Dardanup after a backlash from local residents. Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources, Albemarle’s junior partner in the Kemerton plant and the mothballed Wodgina lithium mine in the Pilbara, has since proposed carting the waste more than 550 kilometres out to its iron ore operations at Koolyanobbing.Tianqi and partner IGO are due to start commissioning of their Kwinana plant and start production in late 2021. Not sure where their aluminosilicate waste will go.The WA Environmental Protection Authority has approved plans for the tailings, but is there a better solution?Pilbara Minerals are investigating the possibility of higher concentration of Lithium salts up to 35% through electric calcination (using Calix CLX technology) on site, such that the aluminosilicate waste remains on site (backfill?) then shipping concentrate to the processor. Of course, the PLS processor is in South Korea, so that is an upstream loss for WA.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dona Ferentes, post: 1127122, member: 66457"] Is it a conflation to mix greener lithium with lower CO2 footprint? Is it the same thing? [I]"open-pit mines and brine evaporation ponds" . [/I]The advantage for Oz is hard rock spodumene[I], [/I]but like most extractive industries, it seems a messy business. What are the concentrations of Lithium in the rock; about 1% to 1.5% tops? Current plans for the big 3 lithium hydroxide plants in WA are for concentration at mine site to about 6%, then shipment to the plants for processing. Wesfarmers and SQM are talking of 1 million tonnes of (benign) waste in tailings for the 50,000 tonne annual LiOH production. The others have similar numbers Wesfarmers chief executive of chemicals, energy and fertilisers Ian Hansen said the producers believed a material known as [B]delithiated beta spodumene[/B] could be repurposed instead of dumped, and is investigating if aggregate for road and building construction is viable. But at present, WES plans are to retruck the waste from Kwinana 550km back to the minesite. Albemarle, which is well on the way to finishing its hydroxide plant at Kemerton, had to scrap plans to dump the tailings at a tip site near the farming town of Dardanup after a backlash from local residents. Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources, Albemarle’s junior partner in the Kemerton plant and the mothballed Wodgina lithium mine in the Pilbara, has since proposed carting the waste more than 550 kilometres out to its iron ore operations at Koolyanobbing. Tianqi and partner IGO are due to start commissioning of their Kwinana plant and start production in late 2021. Not sure where their aluminosilicate waste will go. The WA Environmental Protection Authority has approved plans for the tailings, but is there a better solution? Pilbara Minerals are investigating the possibility of higher concentration of Lithium salts up to 35% through electric calcination (using Calix CLX technology) on site, such that the aluminosilicate waste remains on site (backfill?) then shipping concentrate to the processor. Of course, the PLS processor is in South Korea, so that is an upstream loss for WA. [/QUOTE]

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