LONDON (Alliance News) - Bacanora Minerals Ltd on Tuesday said it has entered talks with an unnamed Asian offtake partner to supply battery-grade lithium carbonate from the Sonora project in Mexico.
Bacanora said it anticipates commissioning an operation capable of delivering 17,500 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year for the first two years, following which it expects to expand capacity to 35,000 tonnes a year.
The miner intends starting production of lithium carbonate from Sonora in 2019.
"Securing an offtake partner is a key component in our strategy to commercialise our large-scale, long-life lithium deposit at Sonora. We are therefore encouraged by these advanced discussions which, in our view, provide third-party validation of the processing route we have put in place at our pilot plant, where battery-grade lithium carbonate has been produced continuously for over six months," said Bacanora Executive Chairman Mark Hohnen.
Elsewhere, Bacanora said it is working to optimise the cost of the Sonora project and its energy requirements due to an increase in re-agent input costs.
Due to this work, the company said the feasibility study for the project will take longer than originally anticipated, though it expects this will be done by summer 2017.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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