Hey guys, thought I would throw up some numbers/thoughts for consideration/critique.
From recent data available it seems like MIN/PLS have been making about US$100/t for their DSO of 1.5% Li2O. Now to break this down a bit a rough estimate would be 50 tonnes of DSO to make 1 tonne of Lithium Carbonate allowing some pretty soft recoveries which is expected in this kind of raw ore to end product process.
So if we think about that further feedstock is costing about $5k/t of Carbonate. World prices ex China are about $17k or thereabouts according to Benchmark Min. So we have payability at 5/17 = 29%
Now let's try and apply that to V2O5. Benchmark product is 98%. We are talking about DSO at around 2%. So we need 49 tonnes and then need to allow for recoveries. Let's say as low as 65%. So that blows the number out to about 75 tonnes.
So if we take current V2O5 prices of $18.70/lb and convert that to tonnes we get $41k/t. Now lets divide that by our 75 tonnes. That give us $548/t. Now take 29% payability and that gives us $160/t.
So based on the fact Li has been successful that should put us well in the zone of possibility at $160/t in my opinion.
Even if we make say 40% profits on that we are talking $64/t.
At a simple 1Mtpa project that gives $64m/year. If we could get some form of upfront payment (1/6th of first year product) and throw in $10m ourselves we might be off the ground.
Obviously this is heavily laden with speculation on a number of fronts but at least it is a place to start for my own thoughts and people to throw in their opinions or criticisms to help us all.
TNO Price at posting:
18.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held