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MINING | Infinity Lithium Corporation
INFINITY Developing lithium-tin production in Europe to power a renewable future
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LITHIUM
MINING | Infinity Lithium Corporation
Plymouth Minerals began the year by changing its name to Infinity Lithium Corporation to reflect its focus on the San Jose Lithium Project in Spain. The ASX-listed firm’s involvement in the project actually pre-dates the current boom in the lithium market, as the opportunity presented itself to Infinity’s management in late 2015, before a JV partnership was agreed with Valoriza Mineria to advance the brownfields project in 2016. “Back then lithium was of interest to people, but it wasn’t red hot,” recalls Infinity’s managing director Adrian Byass.
the region’s mineral endowment, having been initially mined for tin before being later explored for lithium, with a previous developer even going as far as completing a feasibility study for a lithium carbonate site between 1987 and 1991. When Byass came across San Jose he concluded that all the fundamentals were already there; a project with detailed historical work already completed, in a region with deep mining history and supported by a proactive government that was keen to award the tender to groups who could fast track the project into production. In addition, the project is just two and a half hours West of capital city Madrid by car and easily reached by a high quality multi-lane sealed highway, with power and gas pipeline
Byass joined Infinity in 2013, boasting a
infrastructure also in close proximity.
CV which included experience as founding director of Wolf Mining, the ASX and AIM-
On top of this, Byass proposes a number of
listed tungsten and tin producer, and
reasons why the project itself stands out in
immediately set out on a two-year search to
a sea of development stage lithium projects
find a plausible mining project in Spain.
today: “The first is its size. San Jose is the second or third largest lithium project in
The search eventually took Byass to the
Europe. Secondly, it is very advanced and
mining friendly region of Extremadura in
that is one thing a lot of the other projects
Western Spain, a rural area with a strong
are not.”
history and understanding of mining, originally mined there throughout the
Confirming a large-scale lithium resource
early 20th century, as well as lithium more
Building on the historic feasibility study,
recently.
Infinity published a JORC 2012 resource
particularly extraction of tin which was
report and scoping study for the project in The San Jose project, located close to the
November 2017. Further drilling has resulted
town of Caceres, is a perfect example of
in a revised JORC resource (Q1 2018) with 59
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MINING | Infinity Lithium Corporation
million tonnes (Mt) of indicated resources
the 1980s and it stood out even before the
(within a total of 111Mt) grading 0.6% lithium
lithium world got excited. That says a lot, I
oxide.
think it’s a really high quality project.”
Overall, the resource contains in excess
So, why was San Jose not taken through to
of 1.6Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent –
production back in the 1980s if the potential
strong numbers by any current estimations in of the project was known to developers from the growing lithium chemicals market.
the start? The answer lies in the fact that 20 to 30 years ago, the lithium carbonate market
“People knew about this deposit back in
was a fraction of the size it is today.
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“This project was so big that the original
bad recession had hit global markets by
feasibility study concluded it would produce
1991.”
12% of the world’s market and it would be producing for nearly 70 years, that’s how big
In addition, at the time hard rock lithium
it was compared to supplies at the time.
projects were competing against the very low cost lithium brine facilities of South America,
“Therefore, bringing a project of this scale to
and so there was less confidence amongst
production would’ve swamped the market
hard rock developers that projects could be
and severely disrupted spot prices and
advanced cost-effectively.
nobody wanted to do this, given that a very
MINING | Infinity Lithium Corporation
Hard rock is well suited to making higher quality (battery grade) lithium products
A perfectly timed arrival
and is advantageous when considering the
As the old saying goes one man’s loss is
evolution in battery technologies towards a
another man’s gain, and fortunately Infinity
lithium hydroxide-based product. However,
arrived on the scene at San Jose at the
this market did not exist in the early 1990s.
perfect time when the commodity was at the beginning of a steep upward price curve.
“That’s why it didn’t go ahead and got swallowed up into the distance. But then
The converging of Infinity and Valoriza
it popped back out after 30 years when
Mineria (a wholly owned subsidiary of
the exploration license expired, and the
Sacyr) as JV partners for the project was also
government put out new tenders.
down to impeccable timing. Sacyr, a multibillion dollar market capitalised Spanish
“Ultimately, if that company had done their
construction and engineering giant, was
work 20 years later, it would’ve gone into
looking for foreign mining expertise while
production, so it really is all about timing.
Infinity was searching for a company with a
They did 9,000 metres of drilling, big studies
robust understanding of Spain’s permitting
and most of the work was done, so really for
process.
them they were just on the wrong end of the world commodity cycle.”
Once both parties realised that a partnership would be mutually advantageous, things
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began to fall in place. “We were a perfect
Therefore, the open pit mining method and
match in heaven,” claims Byass. “We
low strip ratio of <2:1 combine to provide a
contacted them in early 2015 and while
low cost project with reduced geological risk
it takes a while to build relations, we
and reduced environmental impact, and the
have certainly built a very strong mutual
company is not reinventing the wheel with
relationship now.”
regards to extraction and processing of the lithium ore.
The partnership is currently structured as a 50:50 JV, although Infinity will earn a
“The mica is a mineral which has been used
75% stake in San Jose when it completes a
for decades to produce lithium carbonate.
feasibility study, which should be published
There are several operations in China which
by the end of the calendar year.
use the exact same method we will use so we are not inventing new technologies and
Infinity’s 2017 scoping study proposes an
that’s one of the benefits. Operating plants
open pit mining method for the extraction of
are using the methods we are proposing right
lithium mica minerals over an initial mine life
now and we have the benefit of no novel
of 16 years, with the ore treated and refined
technology requirements as a result. If we
onsite to produce battery grade lithium
can use mining methods that have been used
carbonate over a 24 years production life.
elsewhere we lower our risk.”
MINING | Infinity Lithium Corporation
Fully integrated lithium carbonate or hydroxide production
for its lithium chemicals, and for Byass these arrangements simply boil down to corporate strategy.
Furthermore, with plans for a lithium carbonate production facility at San Jose,
“We can sell products every day of the week,
Infinity is aiming to become the sole
especially lithium carbonate. People will even
European mine-to-end-product lithium
buy off-spec lithium carbonate if there is a
carbonate operation and has successfully
shortage and take on the burden to upgrade
demonstrated its ability to deliver battery
it, so selling it is not the issue.
grade, +99.9% lithium carbonate, via independent testing.
“Transferring your low sovereign risk, long-life product stream into some form of integrated
Not only that, the company is also exploring
financing, that’s the one that takes a bit more
the potential to produce lithium hydroxide
time and effort.”
as well as lithium carbonate, which would give Infinity even greater flexibility when it
As such, Infinity is taking time to find the
comes to the end user market and potential
perfect partner, but hopes to finalise its
strategic partners.
product offtake and strategic partner search by the end of the year.
Infinity is currently looking for an appropriate partner to form an offtake agreement with
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“The mica is a mineral which has been used for decades and decades to produce lithium carbonate. There are several operations in China which use the exact same method we will use so we are not inventing new technologies and that’s one of the benefits” Adrian Byass, managing director
With the feasibility study for San Jose due to
As recently as July, Chinese giant
land in the final quarter of this year and the
Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited
permitting process to be completed at some
(CATL) announced a €4 billion deal to supply
stage next year, Infinity is well on its way to
battery cells to BMW, including a €240 million
commencing the construction of the mine
investment in a German based factory as a
and plant in 2020, ahead of potential first
first phase step into Europe.
production in 2021. “Being close to the market is important in Based on widely-believed demand increase
terms of security of supply and for us there is
indicators for lithium chemicals, Infinity is
nothing better than being in the same trading
coming into the market at the perfect time
bloc as there are no foreign exchange issues,
and has the added boon of being already
no tax issues and foreign tariffs. I would say
located in a major market for lithium, with
economically it makes a significant difference
Europe currently accounting for 30% of
to our project.”
demand and growing.
ASX:INF
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Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
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