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View Full Version : I have been working on Australia's Lithium plays.


Sparty
11-11-2009, 02:26 AM
I have been working on Australia's Lithium (http://www.australian-lithium.com) plays.

In my opinion we have four companies that have potentially economically viable projects.

The most advanced is of course GXY.
GXY ~1.5Mt of Li2CO3 at average grade of 8% at Mt Cattlin

The three others that have a chance are:

RDR ~ Reserves of 1.49 Mt of Li2O* at an average grade of 1.67% Li20 (Recent grades could be as high as 8%) at Mt Marion

ORE ~1.5Mt of Lithium Carbonate and 4.4 Mt of potassium chloride. (Potash) Lithium Brine lake in Argentina with a very low Mg:Li ratio

HDN (Early) but significant rock chip samples between .4-5% over 700m of strike. Pilbara.

For those interested in the Brines have a look at their Mg:Li grades

"The first cut for wheat from chaff is the magnesium-to-lithium ratios in brines. For every integer point increase in that ratio, add $180 to $200 of cost per ton. That puts the economically viable point for brine these days at a ratio of about 11:1 or 12:1. If you see anything much higher than that, run (http://www.topstocks.com.au/stock_discussion_forum.php?action=show_thread&threadid=406670#); there's no point in looking at it. Anything close to that actually gets to be economically scary because certainly we could have downturns in pricing."

The total amount of lithium recoverable from global reserves has been estimated at 35 million tonnes, which includes 15 million tons of the known global lithium reserve base.

Meaning that GXY, RDR and ORE have around 9% of the world's total recoverable Lithium or ~ 20% of the world's known reserves of lithium Assuming a 70% ratio of conversion of resources to reserves -very rough analysis)... I find that to be exciting.

*Lithium oxide readily reacts with water vapour to form hydroxide, and with carbon dioxide to form carbonate.

Lithium Oxide is used in fast breeder nuclear reactors.

I am ignorant of the ramifications re mining of Lithium Oxide compared to Lithium Carbonate and would greatly enjoy being educated by someone who knows.