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Traxys deal in S Africa started last month...

How did the global commodity group Traxys become involved?

That was through Southern Metals Processing. They've got a very strong relationship with the group in South Africa and have previously been involved with some tantalum operations out of Southern Africa and Zimbabwe. They came in through those personal relationships, they did their independent due diligence, had people on site. A very detailed technical geological report was completed, and they agreed to advance $5-million to us, of which we've already drawn $2.5-million. This was used to commence the reprocessing of the stockpiles and also to allow us to increase our shareholding in the project. We've put it to good use. Once we've delivered the first 1 000 t to them later this month and in February, then there will be another advance of $2.5-million to us. That will then give us the opportunity to look at potentially increasing the monthly processing rates of the stockpiles, but also to apply some of that to broader exploration at Blesberg. To have Traxys involved is a big endorsement of the merits of the project and of the lithium within the project itself, so a very good transaction we did with them.

https://m.miningweekly.com/article/lithium-sales-from-south-africa-on-track-to-begin-this-month-marula-mining-reports-2023-01-12

“This is almost like a pre-strip operation we've got at the moment, just by removing those stockpiles. Our contractors, Southern Metals Processing, are doing a great job.

“We've got between 250 000 t and 400 000 t of stockpiles there. Blesberg was a former mine mostly for tantalite, so there's 80 years of intermittent mining activity out there.

“We're looking at between two and three years of just reprocessing those stockpiles. That gives us a good base upon which we then look at the broader exploration and hard rock mining potential that exists at Blesberg,” said Brewer.

Blesberg is located in one of South Africa's biggest mineralised lithium pegmatites.

Battery minerals miner IGO Limited’s push into lithium has driven a six-fold profit surge and record shareholder returns, even as the company warned its lithium assets would take longer to ramp up, and its nickel mines would miss their production target.

IGO transformed itself in 2020 when it bought a stake in Australia’s best lithium mine and the nation’s first battery grade lithium processing plant. The company reported the rewards of that bottom-of-the-market acquisition on Tuesday, when lithium was easily the biggest contributor to a $591 million half-year profit.
The result was a far cry from the $91 million half-year profit for the same period last year, and prompted the IGO board to pay a record 14¢ interim dividend.

The half-year dividend was better than the 10¢ expected by RBC analyst Kaan Peker, and almost triple last year’s 5¢ interim dividend.

The payout demonstrates how booming lithium prices are taking IGO’s shareholder returns into a different league; shareholders received total dividends of 10¢ in each of the past two years.
The tweaks being made to the Kwinana plant prompted IGO and Tianqi to defer an investment decision on building a second processing train at Kwinana.

In November, IGO told investors that an investment decision on a second train at Kwinana was “imminent”. But on Tuesday, the company said a decision would be taken between July and December to make sure the lessons from building the first train were fully absorbed before work started on a second train.

The Kwinana plant is designed to process the lithium-rich spodumene concentrate that is produced at the Greenbushes mine, which is 24.99 per cent owned by IGO.

Mr Peker said the slower expansion of the Kwinana facility was not a major problem for IGO, given the company could simply pay to have the ore from Greenbushes processed into battery grade lithium products by a third party.

“A few market participants expressed concern on added delays and uncertainty around Kwinana Train 1 and 2, however, we think this is overdone. IGO can still toll treat their share of spodumene from Greenbushes [mine],” he said.

Acquisition of those lithium assets was driven by IGO’s late managing director Peter Bradford, who died suddenly in October at the age of 64.

Lithium prices hit record highs last year and IGO said it received an average of $US3984 a tonne for the spodumene concentrate sold from Greenbushes.

For context, the same commodity was fetching less than $US500 a tonne when IGO launched its bid to acquire a stake in the lithium joint venture in 2020.

Australian Magnis "The plant will manufacture cells featuring C4V’s patented Charge CCCV technology which relies on bio-mineralised lithium manganese phosphate (BMLMP) cathode technology. The chemistry, which is free of nickel and cobalt, incorporates traditional electrolyte along with a patented mixed metal phosphate composition in the cathode which the company said enables 3.9 volts of charge, one of the highest voltages of any lithium-ion cells in the marketplace.

Magnis, one of the companies behind plans to develop an 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in northern Queensland, said the voltage is 20% higher than lithium-ion phosphate cells and up to 8% higher than nickel cobalt aluminium and nickel manganese cobalt cells."
https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2022/08/18/magnis-energy-begins-production-at-us-battery-gigafactory/
"RecycLiCo and C4V Produce Battery Cells from Recycled-Upcycled Lithium-ion Battery Waste.
RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. (“RecycLiCo” or “Company“), a company focused on the development of novel and environmentally friendly lithium-ion battery recycling and upcycling technologies, is pleased to announce that the Company has closed the loop on the lithium-ion battery supply chain with its patented recycling and upcycling process. Using the Company’s battery-ready material, new battery cells were successfully assembled, and their performance was validated by C4V.

C4V is an intellectual property company that creates next-generation storage materials with expertise in electrode design and process development to fast-track Gigafactory deployment across the globe. C4V technology is foundational to North America’s largest home-grown lithium-ion battery Gigafactory, iM3NY, in Endicott, New York and is the only Gigafactory across the globe with an ex-Asia supply chain.

C4V completed a phase 1 qualification study, where RecycLiCo’s NMC811 (nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide) precursor cathode material, made from recycled and upcycled lithium-ion battery waste, was converted into a proprietary cathode composition by C4V’s supply chain partner, followed by cell production and performance evaluations by C4V.

As reported by C4V, the electrochemical and technical data achieved the benchmark specifications and performance. Test results also indicated that the specific capacity and stability of the battery cell are acceptable and that C4V approves the material as qualified.

With the objective of using future recycled material for the Gigafactory qualification process, RecycLiCo has shipped the second, larger batch of precursor cathode material to begin phase 2 qualification testing, which includes production of multi-layer commercial size pouch and prismatic cells.

“C4V is pleased to confirm RecycLiCo’s recycled materials have successfully achieved qualification status through our Supply Chain Partner Qualification program. We look forward to further testing and the opportunity to help demonstrate the viability o

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