The decision last week by ASX Top-200 lithium miner, Galaxy Resources, to take a direct stake in Lepidico Ltd (LPD), owner of L-Max®, will have multiple positive impacts for Lithium Australia NL. Galaxy intends to take a direct 12% stake in LPD, which has developed the L-Max metallurgical process that produces lithium carbonate from non-conventional sources such as mica.

Lithium Australia Managing Director, Adrian Griffin, said the Galaxy move into Lepidico significantly boosts Lithium Australia’s leverage to the upside in Australian and global lithium processing R&D as:

• Lithium Australia also holds the rights to three L-Max licences
• One of these L-Max licences is for use in Western Australia which is an exclusive right to use LPD’s L-Max technology until July 2020, which right will be extended for a further 20 years if Lithium Australian commits to build an L-Max plant anywhere in the world during the initial period
• Western Australia is the world’s largest single source of hard rock lithium supply – giving Lithium Australia an exclusive commercial opportunity to establish an L-Max based processing facilities inside WA from potential supply sources such as Galaxy
• Lithium Australia has just received from LPD the proposed licence agreement for Western Australia which Lithium Australia will review to ensure that it complies with the terms of the agreement made in 2015.

Griffin said: “The investment by Galaxy into Lepidico, which is progressing the commercialisation of LMax, is to be applauded as is LPD’s long overdue move to fund finalization of feasibility studies into an L-Max pilot plant.

Lithium Australia will benefit from any improvements made to the L-Max process as under its agreement with Lepidico. Lithium Australia holds an exclusive right to utilize L-Max in Western Australia.

The Galaxy investment highlights the need for processing solutions for alternative lithium supply sources. There may be synergies and opportunities in Lithium Australia providing a processing route inside Western Australia for Galaxy’s surplus mica material at Mt Cattlin to ensure an economic outcome for current waste material.”

Lithium Australia’s philosophy is to match the best technology available to any given source of lithium process feed. To that extent LIT is in the completion stage of engineering process design and costing for both LMax and Sileach processing plants. LIT remains on schedule for a financial investment decision, in early 2018, to construct the first new hydrometallurgical facility for the processing of lithium silicates.

The picture shows Galaxy Resources’ Mt Cattlin spodumene project, located 2 km north of the town of Ravensthorpe in Western Australia.