Lithium's long game
October 2011
With the race for lithium slowing, focus is moving to the complex manufacture of the battery raw material lithium carbonate. Industrial Minerals spoke with Rincon Lithium’s general manager Mike Tamlin on why he believes only a fraction of new producers will begin production and how even less will be profitable
Keywords: Rincon Lithium, Salar del Rincon, Argentina. carbonate, potash
Industrial Minerals: Could you provide a brief overview of where Rincon Lithium is at? Mike Tamlin: Rincon Lithium is in transition from a development project to a commercial business. Rincon Lithium will produce battery grade >99.5% Li2CO3 with first commercial shipments to customers in early 2012. Plant commissioning has been conducted and production is in early stabilisation phases in which attention to quality, consistency and reliability has priority. Early production before optimisation work resulted in >99.5% grade product. Lithium carbonate will be the sole product until the commissioning of by-product facilities that include potassium chloride. IM: Industrial Minerals first wrote about the Rincon Salar development in the early 2000s. It has been a long road to get to this point. What have been the main hurdles for Rincon Lithium since acquiring the project from Admiralty Resources in 2008? MT: The Sentient Group acquired the project in late December 2008 when...
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