Name of the Project
Goulamina lithium project.

Location
The project is located in southern Mali.

Project Owner/s
Mali Lithium, formerly Birimian.

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

The project has a maiden ore reserve of 31.2-million tonnes at 1.56% lithium oxide. The PFS envisages a conventional opencut mining operation, with abstraction through conventional load-and-haul using standard mining equipment.

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.

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 has announced that a water licence has been received from the Malian government for the Goulamina lithium project, enabling the company to pump water from the nearby Selingue dam, derisking the water supply.

The water will be pumped 29 km from the dam to a surface water runoff facility, with the volume of water to be determined by what is produced from bores and harvested volumes.

Further, Mali Lithium is also considering operational cost savings using alternatives to diesel power generating, as well as reduced road transport costs using a combination of shorter route to port and the backloading of product using empty trucks returning to port.

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); and Northshore Capital Advisors (financial modelling).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

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