Diversified metals and resources group Rio Tinto aims to start production at its Jadar lithium-borate mine in north-west Serbia in the early 2020s.
The project's mineral resource is 136mn t, estimated to contain 2.5mn t of lithium oxide and 21mn t of borates. It is being developed by Rio Tinto Borates. A pre-feasibility study on the project started in 2015 and is expected to be completed before the end of 2018.
A long life hard rock underground mine is planned for the project to produce 50,000 t/yr of lithium carbonate with boric acid as a by-product, Andrew Latham, managing director of Rio Tinto Ventures said.
"The project is on the doorstep of the second largest electric vehicle market in the world and we are already one of the world's top producers of boric acid and borate products, The market has the capacity to absorb borate production from Jadar and there is a robust market for lithium developing in Europe," he said.
Rio Tinto has borate production, distribution and marketing operations in various parts of the world. But is not yet a meaningful producer of lithium products. It abandoned its bid for a stake in Chile's Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), the world's largest lithium carbonate producer, at the beginning of 2018.
Comprising 47pc boric acid and 7.3pc lithium oxide, Jadar is seen by Rio Tinto as a unique lithium-borosilicate project which has already been subjected to pilot plant tests.
An on-site processing plant is being considered to produce battery grade lithium carbonate for the electric vehicle market and borate products mainly for glass-related applications.
Jadar is part of Rio Tinto's quest to seek long term growth opportunities beyond its current business and consider a broader suite of metals as technology changes applications and behaviour patterns, Latham said.
It is seen as an important alternative producer of lithium carbonate equivalent which is mainly sourced from Chile and China.
