Nemaska ​​is an expensive revival for lithium

Restoration of Nemaska ​​Lithium, a key project in the battery sector – will cost more with the mining and processing plant project reaching at least 1.5 billion. Quebec and its partner Livent are re-injecting 80 million each and continue to drop their purse strings.

Julian Arsenal
Press

The new partnership, which will be announced this Thursday, will increase Quebec State’s investment to 175 million as it now owns half of the company that went bankrupt. Legalt plans to pay the government up to $ 300 million so that Nemasca lithium rises from its ashes. Minister of Economy and Innovation Pierre FitzGibbon is ready to go further.

“We will receive a final feasibility study in November or December,” he explained in a telephone interview. Are we going to inject over 300 million in total? Probably. Risky projects, not too much debt. ⁇

Since last May, Livent Nemasca, a lithium supplier that has converted to Tesla and BMW, owns the remaining half of the lithium. The American company London acquired the partnership with Paulinghurst.

Recent rounds of financing will be used to complete construction studies and preparatory work. At the Beaconcore Industrial Park, Nemasca plans to produce lithium lithium hydroxide – which is used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles – by converting lithium extracted from the Wabuchi mine, 300 kilometers from By-James.

The site’s previous bill was estimated at $ 1.2 billion.

In the middle of the decade

We have set a target of 2025 to launch the plant, with an annual production of 32,300 tons of lithium hydroxide and mine. Eventually 410 people will have to work in the mine as well as the plant.

With the expected arrival of players like BASF and POSCO at Beaconcore in the production of battery materials, there is pressure to relaunch Nemaska ​​Lithium, Mr. Says Fitzgibbon. Without the company plant, the lithium extracted from the Quebec underground would be exported for processing elsewhere.

Nemaska ​​Lithium is the focus after the economic downturn due to a cost explosion. The bill for the project increased from 875 million to over 1.2 billion. The company had to protect itself from its creditors. Quebec, which was involved in the initial financial formation, lost 71 million in the venture.

In June 2021, the company’s shareholders decided to move to Shavinigan, where the processing plant came to light, turning to Beaconcore, a specialized location to develop the battery sector. At that time, Mr. FitzGibbon noted that the project should be started “from scratch”.

According to the minister, further financial assistance from Quebec and Levant is expected next spring. When the feasibility study is completed, the management team at Nemaska ​​Lithium should clarify. According to Minister FitzGibbon, at present, the structure is a “project office”.