Wave International, one of Australia’s leading lithium refining engineers, hosted Alkemy Capital Investments plc (LON:ALK) on a visit to Western Australia recently, as part of the studies for Australia’s first stand-alone Lithium Sulphate refinery to be located at the Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area, just outside Port Hedland, Australia’s largest export port.
During the visit, Chairman Paul Atherley and Commercial Manager Alex Della Bosca had the opportunity to view by air lithium the three main refineries currently under construction in Western Australia, one of which Wave has designed and engineered, to see how the proposed Boodarie and Tees Valley UK refineries will compare.
The study is considering two trains at Boodarie. Each train will have the capacity to process approximately 180,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate SC6 into around 40,000 tonnes of low carbon Lithium Sulphate annually for export via the nearby Lumsden Point Critical Minerals Wharf at Port Hedland.
At the Tees Valley Lithium refinery, located in the Wilton International Chemical Park in the Teesside Freeport UK, the Lithium Sulphate will be refined into 24,000 tonnes of battery-grade Lithium Hydroxide annually.
At full capacity, fed with Lithium Sulphate from the proposed two trains at Boodarie, along with the proposed technical grade carbonate feedstock from South America, Tees Valley Lithium is being designed to produce 96,000tpa of battery-grade Lithium Hydroxide for the European and international markets.
The first train at Wilton will be the next generation of the conventional design deployed across the three Australian plants currently in development, and will be powered by 100% certified green energy, becoming Europe’s largest low-carbon lithium refining solution.
Wave International CEO, Ryan Hanrahan commented: “Europe, the UK and the USA all have ambitions for localisation of supply chains as far upstream as possible, but do not have the fortune of Australia’s geology.
Wave have been examining intermediary products for many years now, and this approach offers unique opportunities for these countries to meet their localisation goals. It also provides Australia an opportunity to ensure its natural resources are deployed to all global markets, providing stability and diversity to Australian producers.
The Port Hedland plant will provide direct access to these markets to current operations and future discoveries.”
A similar sentiment echoed by the Critical Minerals Association Australia: “Shipping spodumene across the globe (and primarily to China) adds little to the climate and responsible supply chain debate – spodumene is 95% waste. Australia now needs to evolve past being China’s quarry and diversify its income sources to build a better future for all Australians.”
Alkemy Capital’s Tees Valley Lithium’s Hydroxide plant is on track to begin production in 2025 and PHL’s Sulphate plant is scheduled to begin production in 2026.
Alkemy Capital Investments plc (LON:ALK, FRA: JV2) is focussed on developing projects in the energy transition metals sector. Alkemy’s wholly-owned subsidiary Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) is developing a state of the art lithium hydroxide plant at Teesside, UK. TVL is Europe’s largest independent and sustainable lithium hydroxide producer.
