The purchaser of the assets of Lithium America North (LAN), in Abitibi, is working hard to position itself as the leading producer of spodumene in North America.
If we include the purchase of LAN assets last August, Sayona Quebec invested $ 200 million in 2021. The money was used for the rehabilitation of the La Corne facilities, for drilling activities and for the acquisition of a new property in Baie-James.
“We have doubled our production capacity,” said Brett Lynch, Managing Director of Sayona Mining, in a recent presentation at the Québec Mines et Énergie event. We are now the largest holder of lithium resources in North America. This gives us the capacity, theoretically, to produce up to 60,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide. ”
Spodumene, or lithium concentrate, is used to make processed products like lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, which are used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, at the heart of transportation electrification.
Lynch stressed the importance of quickly reaching critical mass in order to convince battery manufacturers and automakers to source from his company.
The boss of Sayona Mining also spoke of Quebec’s comparative advantages in the production of spodumene and value-added lithium products such as carbonate and hydroxide mainly due to the richness of its deposits, its clean and cheap hydroelectricity. market and its relative geographical proximity to the contractors.
The price of spodumene rose from US $ 500 per tonne to US $ 2,000 per tonne this fall in response to announced investments by automakers and governments in vehicle electrification.
Sayona Mining, a mining exploration company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, owns 75% of Sayona Quebec. The other 25% belongs to Piedmont Lithium, an American company which has in its boxes the transformation of spodumene into lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide in North Carolina. Piedmont has a direct contract with Tesla for the supply of hydroxide.
The Algonquin community of Pikogan, near Amos, owns nearly 1% of the shares of Sayona Mining following the agreement between the First Nation and the mining exploration company.
Acquisitions and projects
1er Last December, Sayona unveiled drilling results that the company described as promising at its Authier project in La Motte. It plans to operate an open-pit mine there. The ore would then be processed at LAN in La Corne, about 80 km from the mine. A study by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment is to be held in 2022 on the Authier project, which divides the municipality of La Motte. Citizens fear for the integrity of the Saint-Mathieu-Berry esker, near the future mine.
At the end of September, Sayona announced the acquisition of 60% of the Moblan Lithium project, near the Cree village of Whabouchi, 130 km northwest of Chibougamau. She paid $ 86.5 million. The objective is to create a second lithium production pole in Nord-du-Québec, after that of Abitibi. The other 40% is still held by SOQUEM, a subsidiary of Investissement Québec. Beforehand, Sayona had amassed 88 million US on the markets to finance the acquisition of Moblan.
Last August, Sayona finalized the purchase of the assets of LAN in La Corne, the company having placed itself under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. A group of Quebec buyers, led by Pierre Gauthier, CEO of Central America Nickel, and Benoit La Salle, Chairman of the Board of SRG Mining, unsuccessfully challenged the transaction in court.
Investissement Québec (IQ), which has great ambitions in the battery sector, confirms having lost 63 million with the disappointment of LAN version 1.0.
” [La perte] may be offset by the economic benefits associated with relaunching the mine and processing spodumene in Quebec, ”the organization maintains in an email.
IQ could also invest new sums, if we are to believe the recent registration of Sayona in the register of lobbyists. “The representations also aim to obtain the financial aid available for the development of the lithium mine of the company located in La Corne”, it reads. IQ is one of the lot of government departments and organizations surveyed by the mining company.
Upcoming action plan
Sayona is now based on two poles: one in Abitibi and the other in Nord-du-Québec, around Moblan.
As for the pole in Abitibi, it is about “a pole oriented on the development of the mining complex of La Corne, a mining complex supported by two projects that [la société] is developing in parallel, which are at different stages of development, the Authier project in La Motte and the Tansim project in the community of Moffet [au Témiscamingue] », Explained Guy Laliberté, CEO of Sayona in Quebec, at the same Quebec Mines et Énergie conference.
” [À La Corne], we are busy investing between 47 and 63 million to update the concentrator at the level of production equipment, but also an upgrade at the environmental level, he said. This return to production should be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
“There is also a carbonate sector [à La Corne] and we recently received an appraisal from Hatch for a refurbishment, which will be valued at $ 285 million if we go ahead, he continued. That would lead us to become carbonate producers in mid-2025, but it is definitely something that we are studying. In addition, there are other options, that is to say that you can make hydroxide on site or outside La Corne. So we expect another report from Hatch in this regard on January 21. And in 2022, we should definitely make a decision on the second transformation. ”
With the collaboration of Julien Arsenault, Press