Posted by Daniel Gleeson on twelfth June 2024
Albemarle Company has launched its venture plan for the Kings Mountain Mine, one of many few identified hard-rock lithium deposits within the US.
The plan contains the proposed website footprint, main bodily options and particulars of the mining processes. Pending allowing approval and a ultimate funding determination, the mine is anticipated to provide roughly 420,000 tons (381,018 t) of lithium-bearing spodumene focus yearly.
After allow approvals are secured, Albemarle expects to make use of open-pit mining to deepen and develop the present mine pit to the southwest. The prevailing rock and soil can be drilled, blasted and loaded into vans and hauled to varied locations on the mine website. Rock that doesn’t comprise lithium-bearing spodumene ore can be separated and saved at on-site rock storage services or repurposed for different makes use of. A portion of the rock that can be utilized for development mixture manufacturing is predicted to be transported to the adjoining Martin Marietta quarry.
Ore can be hauled by truck to the run-of-mine (ROM) pad used to feed the on-site mineral processing facility at a median charge of circa-3.1 million tons per 12 months (circa-8,900 tons per day). Albemarle intends to subsequently transport the spodumene focus by truck and/or rail to an off-site conversion plant on the charge of roughly 420,000 tons per 12 months.
“The Kings Mountain Mine is a world-class useful resource that may present a necessary ingredient to energy our future,” Albemarle Power Storage President, Eric Norris, stated. “We’re happy to share our plan with the neighborhood as we proceed to hunt their engagement to redevelop this wealthy, home useful resource in a protected and accountable method.”
The proposed venture plan, shared this week at a neighborhood open home and out there on-line, contains a number of environmentally and socially accountable mining options and practices:
- Decreased land disturbance: The plan contains using the previous Kings Mountain Mine to assist mining operations and using a former mica mine for tailings storage—each designed to reduce the quantity of land disturbance vital.;
- Sustainable supplies administration: Non-ore-bearing materials from mining operations is deliberate to be transferred to the adjoining Martin Marietta Kings Mountain Quarry for processing and sale as development mixture. The association is meant to contribute to a extra sustainable administration of assets and a portion of the gross sales are deliberate for use to assist Kings Mountain and the encompassing communities. As well as, Albemarle is at present testing secondary markets for processed ore tailings, which can have purposes in ceramics or development supplies industries;
- Excessive requirements and accountability: Planning for environmental safety measures and neighborhood engagement has been performed to align with the Initiative for Accountable Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) Customary for Accountable Mining, a complete set of necessities designed to scale back opposed environmental and social impacts and create advantages for native communities. As soon as operational, the mine would endure a full third-party verification evaluation performed by an IRMA-approved certification physique; and
- Sustainable water administration: The mine is designed to function with collected precipitation to assist its operations, counting on exterior sources just for ingesting water, hearth safety and sanitary functions.
In September 2023, Albemarle Company signed agreements with Caterpillar Inc to collaborate on options to assist the total round battery worth chain and sustainable mining operations. This aimed to assist Albemarle’s efforts to determine Kings Mountain, North Carolina because the first-ever zero-emissions lithium mine website in North America, with the efforts together with use of next-generation, battery-powered mining gear.
In 2023, Albemarle was awarded a $90 million grant from the U.S. Division of Protection to assist assist the acquisition of a fleet of mining gear as a part of the mine’s redevelopment. In 2022, Albemarle was additionally awarded a $150 million grant from the U.S. Division of Power as a part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation to develop home manufacturing of batteries for electrical automobiles.
Together with the venture plan, Albemarle additionally commenced the general public participation portion of a voluntary Environmental and Social Impression Evaluation. As a key ingredient of IRMA’s Customary for Accountable Mining, the evaluation seeks to raised perceive and handle potential impacts from the proposed mine with consideration to the encompassing surroundings, native financial system and the neighborhood’s well being and security. Albemarle plans to make use of the outcomes of the evaluation to develop environmental and social administration plans to minimise opposed impacts and improve advantages.
