Tantalex Lithium Resources (CSE:TTX, OTC:TTLXF) has unveiled a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Manono Lithium Tailings Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that it said is “perfectly aligned” with the results of its maiden resource report for the majority-owned project filed in January 2023.
In a statement, the company said the PEA reveals excellent project economics and financial returns, highlighting a “robust” pre-tax net present value (NPV) with a 10% forward discount rate (NPV10%) of approximately US$764 million and an 87.4% internal rate of return (IRR) on a nominal basis. On a real basis, the NPV10% is US$638 million, with an IRR of 82.3%.
“It was our decision to focus our efforts on completing this PEA as a priority which now allows us to progress on our Feasibility and ESIA Studies,” Tantalex president and CEO Eric Allard commented.
The company owns 52% of the Manono lithium-tin-tantalum tailings deposit, located 490 km north of Lubumbashi, in the DRC's Tanganyika Province.
The project has a capital cost estimate of US$147.7 million including contingencies. At a lithium spodumene concentrate price of US$2,800 per ton, as forecast by Fastmarkets, payback from the start of production would be one year, the company said.
The PEA also estimates a life-of-mine of six years with an estimated annual production of 112,000 tons of spodumene concentrate.
The company noted that the project includes a low-risk plant operation and tailings reclamation, with the ready-to-use tailings dump resources feeding the beneficiation plant with a minimum cost of mining, crushing, grinding, and processing.
The process plant nameplate capacity is 1.26 million tons per annum of run-of-mine (ROM).
Tantalex said it has also identified a number of opportunities to improve capital and operating costs and plant capacity. The exploration program is being finalized with a focus on increasing indicated resources and extending life of project.
“We have sized the project scope in order to use existing infrastructures but as the Manono region develops into an important lithium mining region, we are confident that energy and logistics costs will significantly reduce,” Allard added.
“Additionally, we will pursue with our resource definition works to increase the Life of Mine on both the Tailings Property and our highly prospective hard rock lithium Pegmatite Corridor.’’
The company announced recently that it struck a marketing offtake agreement with mining and mineral trading giant Glencore International for lithium produced from the project. Glencore will pay a staggered US$5 million to Tantalex as part of the agreement and has agreed to finance a third of the capital requirements if it meets its conditions.
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