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- International engineering company Hatch has been appointed to provide engineering and design services
- Design services will be provided to Lake’s Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina, which is considered to be in the top 10 for global lithium resources
- High recoveries between 85 and 90 per cent
Lake Resources has announced the appointment of international engineering company Hatch Limited to provide engineering and design services to Lake’s Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina.
A pre-feasibility study is currently being undertaken at Kachi, as well as reviewing and assessing the technical and economic viability.
This will be done by both conventional processing and direct extraction methods to determine project engineering design, product specifications, and ordering and capital costs.
Considered to be one of the top 10 largest lithium brine resource globally Kachi is a highly prospective area for lithium brine and has been operating for more than 20 years.
A phase one engineering study showed the potential for production costs to be in the lowest cost quartile with high recoveries between 85 and 90 per cent and lithium brine concentration in excess of 25,000 mg/L lithium.
Kachi is centred around a salt lake within a large basin almost 100km long with initial drilling results showing up to 322ppm of lithium at surface with more results expected soon. Initial auger sampling identified encouraging results, taking over 40 samples over 20,000 hectares.
Significant cost reductions and superior recoveries are expected to be demonstrated on site for the direct extraction process rather than the traditional evaporation ponds used in South Australian brine projects.
Lake is currently in discussions with a number of other parties regarding production development funding for Kachi that will assist with helping the definitive feasibility study that is likely to occur from the pre-feasibility study.
As part of the development design and engineering work has commenced on a pilot plant to be built on site. This phase is expected to take three months with an additional three months for construction with planned delivery for late 2019.
