<article><p class="lead">Perth-based battery metals developer Neometals is progressing its plans to become a fully integrated supplier of downstream lithium products as well as a recycler of used lithium-ion batteries.</p><p>It aims to finalise engineering design for its proposed 10,000 t/yr lithium hydroxide plant at Kalgoorlie, as well as advance offtake negotiations and gain necessary development approvals, in 2019.</p><p>Linked to the lithium hydroxide plant are plans to fast-track the commercialisation of zeolite production from the plant's leach residue. Zeolite's growing global applications include gas cleaning, molecular sieves, catalysts and water removals from gas streams. A pilot plant is planned for commissioning in the second half of the year.</p><p>The company will also accelerate plans to find partners and feedstock for its proposed lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Kalgoorlie. A 100 kg/d pilot plant is scheduled to be completed by the end of June, to be followed by the design of a 50 t/d plant.</p><p>In a presentation to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Battery &amp; Energy Storage Forum, Neometals said that despite lithium price deterioration and poor sector returns in 2018 "we have strong conviction in the long-term electric vehicle and energy storage systems thematic."</p><p>The company sold its 13.8pc stake in the Mt Marion lithium mine to its partners, Australia's Mineral Resources and China's Ganfeng Lithium, for A$104mn ($75mn) towards the end of last year. But it retained its rights to 57,000 t/yr of lithium concentrate, which will comprise most of the feedstock for its lithium hydroxide plant.</p><p>A definitive feasibility study on the lithium hydroxide plant should be completed in the second quarter of 2019, along with a final investment decision. Plant construction is planned for 2021 or 2022 with commissioning in 2023 to meet rising demand for lithium hydroxide from battery manufacturers.</p><p>While several other Australian and international companies have plans for lithium hydroxide plants, Neometals may have a unique facility if its battery recycling plans come to fruition. Existing battery recycling plants focus mainly on recovering base metals, leaving behind metals such as lithium and cobalt.</p><p>"Less than 5pc of lithium-ion batteries are truly recycled with the majority of recycling only recovering base metals with a yield of 40-50pc," Neometals said, adding that it is developing a process flowsheet to recover multiple metals from lithium-cobalt oxide (LCO) and nickel, manganese, cobalt (NMC) batteries.</p><p>Its business model is to initially focus on partnerships with automakers and battery manufacturers to recycle off-specification battery cells that fail quality assurance and control. </p><p>Neometals is also nearing completion of a definitive feasibility study on its Barrambie vanadium-titanium project in Western Australia, one of the world's highest-grade hard rock vanadium projects. </p><p>Vanadium prices have rebounded strongly in the past two years because of under-supply and increasing demand from steel and energy storage markets.</p></article>
