Talison Lithium to expand Greenbushes lithium mine in $516 million project

A leading global supplier of lithium products has announced that it has paved the way for a major expansion at the world’s largest hard rock lithium mine.

Tianqi Lithium, through its subsidiary Talison Lithium, has announced that has agreed to a A$516 million ($382 million) expansion of the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia.

The expansion would create a significant increase to the operation’s production capacity to 1.8 million tonnes of chemical grade lithium concentrate.

Through the construction of a new lithium concentrate plant, able to produce 520, 000 tonnes of chemical grade lithium per year, Talison will increase the overall production capacity at the Greenbushes mine by 608,000 tonnes to 1.95 million tonnes of a year.

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This would translate directly to around 260,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Talison will aim to begin commissioning at the plant in 2020.

Located directly south and immediately adjacent to the town of Greenbushes in Western Australia, the Greenbushes pegmatite deposit is approximately 2,525 million years old.

Talison Lithium and its predecessor companies have been producing lithium from the Greenbushes Lithium Operations for over 25 years and the Greenbushes area is recognised as the longest continuously operated mining area in Western Australia.