Galan Lithium’s share price has touched an all-time high after a second look at its pond design determined it might be able to squeeze up to 25,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent annually out its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in South America’s renowned Lithium Triangle, rather than the originally contemplated 20,000 tonnes per annum.
Located in Argentina, the 100 per cent owned Hombre Muerto West or “HMW” project boasts some 2.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent resources at an average grade of 946 milligrams per litre lithium and a “total inventory” of about 3Mt LCE at 858mg/l lithium.
The company is looking to fast-track the project to production having recently launched into foundation works to feed into a detailed feasibility study.
Galan shares today settled at an all-time closing high of 97c with an intra-day all-time high of 98.5c as the company continues to tick boxes in its push to develop HMW.
Management says a new two-stage evaporation pond design over a larger land area may increase production to as much as 25,000tpa of LCE.
More favourable terrain is to be utilised in stage-one to reduce earthworks requirements and the proposed project’s capital efficiency in terms of US dollars per tonne of LCE output each year, according to Galan.
Two new evaporation trials have also been conducted with both returning lithium in chloride concentrate in line with previous tests at 6 per cent or higher.
Interestingly, one test utilised a modified process which potentially reduces reagent costs and in turn operational costs. Further evaporation testwork to optimise the reagent solution for the feasibility study is ongoing.
Galan’s Managing Director Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega said:“Galan continues to strengthen and broaden the flexibility of the HMW project with a view to production as soon as possible. We have confirmed the existence of a strong product with lithium concentrate levels beyond 6 per cent lithium, and we continue to optimise our evaporation route. Our team is confident of the HMW project’s potential to increase its production levels up to 25,000tpa LCE in the next feasibility studies. The Galan team continues to look at solutions to grow and make HMW as robust and as low risk as possible by using proven technology.”
Galan is moving forward with a series of other activities in the lead up to the feasibility study.
Design of a pond pilot plant seeking to produce lithium brine concentrate grading 6 per cent on site is reportedly advancing. A process flow diagram has been finalised whilst civil and mechanical design is progressing.
Discussions with plant construction contractors have also commenced.
The company sees process design as a crucial step before sourcing a major engineering contract for the project and it is evaluating the most suitable design for the feasibility study.
Results of testwork on production of battery grade lithium carbonate are due early in the third quarter, whilst brine concentration modelling has also started.
The company has also initiated discussions with drilling companies as it plans to smash out the metres to upgrade HMW resources into reserves.
Galan’s share price has risen by more than 500 per cent over the last twelve months and punters will no doubt have their eyes firmly fixed on the Perth based company as the HMW feasibility study draws near.
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By Matt Birney
