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Piedmont Lithium acquires site for planned US lithium chemical plant

Published: 11:05 05 Jul 2018 AEST

Overview of lithium chemical plant site
The chemical plant site has access to all necessary infrastructure

Piedmont Lithium Ltd (ASX:PLL) (NASDAQ:PLLL) has acquired a parcel of land in North Carolina as a potential site for its planned lithium chemical plant.

Acquisition of the 60.6-acre site in Kings Mountain represents an important step in the development of the vertically integrated Piedmont Lithium Project.

The site is around a 20-mile truck haul from the company’s proposed spodumene mine and concentrator, minimising the freight cost for concentrate delivery to the proposed facility.

READ: Piedmont Lithium sees added value from by-products in future mining operation

Piedmont’s president and CEO Keith Phillips said: “We are very pleased to have identified such an attractive site for our downstream operations.

“The site is a short drive from our core mining and concentration properties, it is the proper scale for our contemplated lithium chemical production operations, and it offers all the infrastructure one would seek for such a facility.

“Piedmont is focused on building an integrated lithium chemical operation in North Carolina, and this site will be an integral part of our plans.”

READ: Piedmont Lithium reveals maiden lithium JORC resource

The planned plant will convert Piedmont Lithium-produced spodumene concentrate to lithium chemicals, with a focus on battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

This commands a pricing premium relative to lithium carbonate, and recent studies report that lithium hydroxide produced from spodumene has a production cost advantage relative to production from brines.

Access to infrastructure

Zoned heavy-industrial, the chosen plant site has direct access to a Norfolk Southern rail line, Interstate I-85 and US Highway 29.

There is also natural gas and power transmission immediately adjacent to the property.

The plant site is within 20 miles of the Piedmont Lithium Project.

The site will be included in the company’s scoping study, which is on track for completion during the current quarter.

Piedmont Lithium will begin permitting for the lithium chemical plant upon completion of the scoping study.

Within a world-class tin-spodumene belt

The company’s lithium project is within the world-class Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt (TSB) and along trend to the Hallman Beam and Kings Mountain mines.

Historically these mines provided most of the western world’s lithium between the 1950s and the 1980s.

The TSB has been described as one of the world’s largest lithium provinces and is about 25 miles west of Charlotte, North Carolina.

It is a premier location to be developing an integrated lithium business based on a number of factors.

These include favourable geology, proven metallurgy and easy access to infrastructure, power, R&D centres for lithium and battery storage, major high-tech population centres and downstream processing facilities.

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on 5/12/23