Galaxy Managing Director Iggy Tan said Galaxy's technology will enable it to become the first lithium company in South America to produce battery grade lithium carbonate directly from the salar site.
"Currently, South American brine lithium producers have to upgrade their lithium carbonate to battery grade standard by sending the product off site or overseas. Using our purification technology, Galaxy will be the first company in South America to produce battery grade lithium carbonate product direct from a brine salar operation."
"We see the biggest future lithium demand coming from the lithium-ion battery sector. We believe we are already achieving one of the best quality battery grade products available in the market today," Mr Tan said.
The high quality Sal de Vida project is expected to become Galaxy's next flagship asset. Sal de Vida's potential production profile is 25,000 tpa of battery grade lithium carbonate, which would take Galaxy?s annual lithium carbonate production to 42,000 tpa from 2016 onwards.
Galaxy is continuing work on the development of Sal de Vida, although a final investment decision won't be made by the Galaxy Board until the Jiangsu Plant is generating positive cash flows on a sustained basis, expected Q1 2013.
The chart shows lithium carbonate quality produced at Galaxy's Jiangsu Plant using purification technology compared to South American brine product currently available in the market. The current purified product from Jiangsu has far lower levels of critical elements such as Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg). For lithium cathode and lithium-ion battery makers, these impurity levels are critical, with high levels of these elements potentially causing oxidation and gassing in the final battery product, and ultimately reduction in the life of a lithium-ion battery.