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noRtH AMeRIcA

Workers on site at one of Green
Technology Metals’ Ontario
lithium projects

than we would have expected to be in- development mode. In late June, Sayona duction of EVs into one location – is likely
vested in our pre-resource project,” Evans Mining Ltd and ASX-listed development to prove advantageous for companies such
confirmed. partner Piedmont Lithium Inc formallly ap- as Sayona, Winsome and GT1. Tesla Inc’s
Green Technology Metals Ltd (GT1) chief proved the restart of the mothballed North Elon Musk said in June that Canada was
executive Luke Cox has also fielded inter- American Lithium (NAL) operation in Que- a possibility to house his next Gigafactory.
est from downstream players over his com- bec. Spodumene concentrate production “We are looking at sites, but we are
pany’s projects in Ontario’s Thunder Bay. is set to resume in Q1 2023, pending the considering some options more broadly in
“Because supply is at a bottleneck, successful recommissioning of the existing North America, so including Canada and
downstream players are getting very nerv- concentrator. Mexico, and the US as well,” he said.
ous as they have invested billions of dollars Sayona and Piedmont have budgeted For now, the automaker’s priority is to
into their battery and car manufacturing $C98 million ($110 million) for the restart. It ramp up production at the existing Texas
facilities and might not be able to produce comes after Sayona raised $190 million via gigafactory.
anything,” Cox told Paydirt. a placement to global institutional, profes- Reflecting on Canada’s strides made in
“We have already been approached by sional and sophisticated investors in late the lithium supply chain, Evans said Aus-
numerous downstream players to discuss May. tralia was beginning to fall behind in pro-
our appetite for offtake agreements, espe- Under an offtake agreement with Sayona, gress.
cially in North America and Asia who cur- Piedmont is entitled to purchase the greater “I think [Australia] is lagging a bit there,”
rently control supply.” of 113,000 tpa of spodumeme concentrate, he said. “It is two different things. One is
GT1 recently doubled the resource at its or 50% of the production from NAL, follow- producing the primary lithium product like
Seymour project in Thunder Bay to 9.9mt ing the restart of operations. the spodumene product. Then it’s another
@ 1.4% lithium. The company will spend Sayona managing director Brett Lynch thing going downstream and producing bat-
the rest of this year completing step-out said the company was delighted to “put the teries.
drilling at the North Aubry deposit. seal” on its plan to launch North America’s “I think Canada is excelling at the jun-
A first-hole result released in early July first local spodumene concentrate produc- ior stuff to encourage mines to get off the
defined a 17.9m spodumene-bearing peg- tion. ground, it’s also doing very well at the back-
matite from 218m, with assays pending at “All the key players in the North American end to encourage battery construction fa-
the time of print. auto and battery sector are moving to invest cilities. But there have been a couple of no-
Cox said the development boxes for Sey- in local production in Quebec, benefitting table failures in the middle for conversion.
mour were speedily being ticked. from its world-class infrastructure, skilled Nemaska [Lithium Inc] and NAL started to
“We have already commenced environ- labour, proximity to battery markets and build conversion facilities but both failed,
mental baseline studies at Seymour which low-cost, sustainable hydroelectric power,” so there hasn’t been a success story in
takes roughly two years depending on find- Lynch said. Canada yet for the mid-ground of produc-
ings,” he said. “To date, the numerous air, “Combined with our emerging northern ing lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
water, fauna and flora studies have come lithium hub, NAL will ensure Quebec is at “But there are several projects under way
back with positive results...we are also in the centre of lithium carbonate and/or lithi- to make that happen. I don’t think Canada is
the planning phase to commence our pre- um hydroxide production in North America, perfect, it certainly hasn’t got the whole life-
liminary economic assessment now that we becoming the axis on which a successful cycle sorted yet, but it’s working on parts of
have pushed through 10mt and driving to- battery ecosystem can be built.” it and being more proactive than Australia
wards a critical mass of 15mt at Seymour.” Being close to North American gigafac- is.”
Some companies are also moving into tories – facilities which integrate the pro- – Fraser Palamara

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