Studying 160,000 T/Y Quarry Opportunity
Piedmont Lithium Limited (ASX:PLL) has awarded the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) of its planned spodumene concentrate (SC6) operations in North Carolina to a combined team including Primero Group and Marshall Miller & Associates.
Marshall Miller will lead quarry design activities while Primero will advance the concentrator design, infrastructure design, and be responsible for overall study management.
The DFS will target production of 160,000 tonnes per year of SC6 as well as co-products including quartz and feldspar. The study will incorporate the results of the pilot level testwork currently ongoing at SGS Canada. Piedmont expects to complete the DFS in mid-2021 and pursue an investment decision for the concentrate operations shortly thereafter.
CEO, Keith Phillips, said Piedmont remains fully committed to development of an integrated lithium hydroxide business in North Carolina and a DFS of a planned lithium chemical plant will commence in Q1 2021.
Earlier in 2020, Piedmont and Primero entered into an MOU to work together on an exclusive basis for project services including the DFS and future services including the EPC delivery, commissioning, ramp-up and contract operations of Piedmont’s spodumene concentrator. Primero is recognised as a world leader in design, delivery, and operations of spodumene projects and globally.
Piedmont has engaged with Marshall Miller since 2018 to advance mine design, permitting activities, survey, geotechnical study, waste rock and tailings storage design, and other engineering support services. Marshall Miller is an experience regional mining engineering firm based in Bluefield, Virginia with extensive experience in open pit mine and quarry design and permitting in North Carolina and throughout the eastern United States.
“We are very pleased to be formally commissioning the definitive feasibility study for our concentrate operations, and to be working with industry leaders such as Primero and Marshall Miller,” Mr Phillips said.
“We will launch the DFS for our chemical operations in Q1 2021 and will be positioned to begin construction in mid-2021, which should be ideal timing given the vast demand for lithium hydroxide we expect beginning in the 2022-2023 time period.”
