Name of the Project
Goulamina lithium project.

Location
The project is located in southern Mali.

Project Owner/s
Mali Lithium, formerly Birimian.

Project Description
Goulamina is the largest uncommitted hard-rock lithium ore reserve in the world. The project has a maiden ore reserve of 31.2-million tonnes at 1.56% lithium oxide.

An updated prefeasibility study (PFS) has confirmed that the project can be profitably developed as a large-scale, low-cost, hard-rock lithium mine.

The mine will supply a two-million-tonne-a-year minerals concentrating plant. Processing will be through a conventional spodumene beneficiation plant that incorporates crushing, reflux classification, dense-media separation, milling, flotation, concentrate handling and tailings disposal producing an average of 362 000 t of 6% lithium oxide spodumene concentrate, or 53 704 t of lithium carbonate equivalent, a year, for the initial mine life of 16 years.

The operation will deliver ore to a run-of-mine pad and waste to a large dump from the openpits.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

All-in Sustaining Costs/All-in Costs
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of A$920-million and an internal rate of return of 49.5%, with a payback of 2.6 years, including production ramp-up.

Capital Expenditure
The project will cost about A$196-million to implement.

Planned Start/End Date
A final investment decision on the project is expected at the end of 2020, with project construction expected to take between 18 and 24 months.

Latest Developments
Mali Lithium commissioned Hatch in October 2019 to assist with a scoping study into the potential downstream processing of the 6% lithium oxide product to be produced from its Goulamina lithium project. The study is expected to take six months to complete.

The scoping study into the possible production of lithium products, such as lithium sulphate and lithium oxide, will be done in parallel with the ongoing definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the Goulamina mining and processing project, which is due for completion in May 2020.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Ausenco Services (lead contractor for the completion of the PFS and final report generation. Process plant and infrastructure designs, and the development of associated capital and operating cost estimates); AQ2 (hydrogeological studies); Cube Consulting (mineral resource and ore reserve estimates); Majesso Consulting (capital and operational expenditure estimates for mining); Land & Marine Geological Services (tailings storage facility engineering and design); ALS Metallurgy and Valdrew Nominees (metallurgical testwork); Digby Wells Associates Mali (environmental- and social-impact studies); Roskill Consulting UK (lithium supply demand and cost forecast); Siggiconnect (independent concentrate price forecast); Northshore Capital Advisors (financial modelling); and Hatch (scoping study into downstream processing of lithium oxide product).

Contact Details for Project Information
Mali Lithium, tel +61 8 6149 6100 or email info@malilithium.com.