Nemaska Lithium gets $ 12.9- million federal grant

Nemaska Lithium Inc., developing the Whabouchi lithium project in northwestern Quebec, has won a $ 12.87- million federal “technology commercialization” grant to aid construction of a $ 39- million pilot processing plant.

The award was made under the federally funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada ( SDTC) program.

The 500- tonnes- per- year pilot plant due onstream in 2016 will demonstrate Nemaska’s proprietary hydromet technology to process spodumene hard rock into high- purity compounds for the global lithium- ion battery and industrial markets.

“We’re building the pilot plant ahead of the full commercial- scale project to demonstrate our clean hydromet technology,” Nemaska’s CEO Guy Bourassa said.

“It will provide commercial sam- ples to be sent for testing to battery market end- users, possibly leading to future customer offtake agreements.”

Battery manufacturing has become increasingly sophisticated lately and producers now take up to 12 months to qualify new suppliers of lithium compounds, he said

The Whabouchi spodumene deposit lies 60 kilometres north of Val d’Or. The open- pit mine and concentrator, along with a refinery at Valleyfield, near Montreal, have a total capital cost of $ 500 million or more. Annual capacity will be 28,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide and 3,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.

The Cree communities of northwestern Quebec support the project. Final public review hearings are being held in the Cree Community of Nemaska on March 30 and in Chibougamau on April 1.

The Quebec government’s goahead is expected before year end.