American Lithium Corp. (TSXV:LI | Nasdaq: AMLI | Frankfurt:5LA1) has filed an independent National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the company’s Falchani Lithium Project located in Puno, southwestern Peru.
The PEA and accompanying technical report were completed by DRA Global and Stantec Consulting Services Inc. The PEA demonstrates that Falchani has the potential to become a substantial, low-cost, long-life producer of high purity lithium carbonate with the potential to also produce sulphate of potash and cesium sulphate by-products alongside LCE.
Falchani PEA highlights:
- Pre-tax Net Present Value US$8.41B at US$22,500/t LCE
- After-tax NPV8% US$5.11B at US$22,500/t LCE
- NPV has tripled versus 2019 PEA after-tax NPV8% US$1.5B at $12,000/t LCE
- Pre-tax Internal Rate of Return of 40.7%
- After-tax IRR of 32.0%
- Pre-tax initial capital payback period five years; after-tax payback three years
- Average LOM annual pre-tax cash flow: US$1,019M; annual after-tax cash flow: US$644M
- Initial Capital Costs estimated at US$681M
- Total Capex LOM estimated at US$2,565M; Sustaining capital estimated at US$236M
- Operating cost estimated at US$5,092/t LCE
- PEA mine and processing plan produces 64Mt LCE LOM over 43 years
- Steady-state Ave. of 23,145tpa LCE Phase 1; 45,084tpa Phase 2; and 72,624tpa Phase 3
“We are very pleased to have filed this updated PEA on Falchani, which shows very robust economics for this large-scale, high purity, hard rock project.” stated Simon Clarke, CEO of American Lithium. “This is a major milestone in the process to complete pre-feasibility and move the Project into mine permitting. The filing of the Semi-Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment late last year also positions the Project to be fast-tracked. Falchani has demonstrated the potential for long life, high annual production, with one of the lowest operating cost profiles globally for developers.”
Falchani PEA Highlights Alternate Case – LCE-only in Phase 1; SOP + Cs2SO4 added from Phase 2:
- Identical LCE production scenario, but with added average production of 81,556tpa of SOP and 3,796tpa of Cs2SO4 from years 6-43
- Pre-tax NPV8% US$9.25B at US$22,500/t LCE, US$1,000/t SOP, and US$58,000/t Cs2SO4
- After-tax NPV8% US$5.58B at US$22,500/t LCE, US$1,000/t SOP, and US$58,000/t Cs2SO4
- Pre-tax internal rate of return of 38.5%
- After-tax IRR of 29.9%
- Pre-tax initial capital payback period five years; after-tax payback 3.0 years
- Average LOM pre-tax annual cash flow (excluding initial capital): US$1,227M; annual after-tax cash flow: US$774M
- Initial capital costs estimated at US$681M
- Total Capex estimated at US$3,466M; Sustaining Capital estimated at US$260M
- Opex estimated at US$5,705/t LCE (for all products)
- Opex estimated at US$1,361/t LCE, inclusive of SOP & Cs2SO4 credits
- PEA mine plan produces 64Mt LCE and 3.10Mt SOP and 144,247t Cs2SO4 LOM over 43 years
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred resources that are considered too speculative to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves and there is no certainty the estimates presented in the PEA will be realized.
