Greenbushes mine

The Greenbushes mine is the world's largest hard rock lithium mine by reserves & resources, production, and capacity.[5] The facilities operations are made up of the mine and two nearby processing facilities that convert the raw lithium spodumene concentrate into lithium hydroxide before being sold to many of the world's leading battery manufacturers including LG Chem, CATL and Northvolt.[1]

The twin processing facilities nearby are currently under construction and are Albemarle's Kemerton plant and Tianqi's Kwinana plant that are in nearby Kemerton and Kwinana, respectively. The Kwinana plant is located 250 km north of the Greenbushes site, while the Kemerton plant is 100 km north of the Greenbushes facility. The Kwinana facility will be Australia's first lithium processing facility and one of the first outside of China. The cost benefits of a processing facility located close to a mine are reported to be considerable.[1] In the past brine mining for lithium has been far more cost effective and easier than hard-rock lithium mining[6] however, preliminary calculations show the Greenbushes mine may be the first hard-rock lithium mine to show that hard-rock mining can be as cost effective and profitable as brine mining given the strategic benefits of having the processing next to extraction site.[4]

The Kemerton facility is still undergoing preliminary construction. While the Kwinana facility is undergoing final stage commissioning for the first part of its operation.[7] The Kwinana facility is the world's first fully automated battery-grade lithium hydroxide manufacturing facility outside of mainland China and can operate 24/7.[8] The total capacity of the plant is believed to be 48 Ktpa.[4] The facility is also the world's first hard-rock sourced lithium chemical manufacturing facility outside of China, the largest of its kind and is expected to have the lowest cash cost of any lithium processing plant globally.[8] Tianqi has invested over 600m USD into their lithium processing facility.[1]

The Kwinana facility is estimated to provide 200 permanent full-time local jobs for the Kwinana community when it begins full time operations.[9] As of 2018 Talison was operating the Greenbushes mine at only 60% of its total capacity and it is estimated that if the facility were operated at 100% capacity it could fulfil total global lithium demand by itself.[10] Greenbushes alone controls 26% of the raw material market share of lithium.[3]

The Greenbushes lithium deposit is the world's largest hard rock lithium deposit. The deposit is internationally renowned for containing the highest-grade quality lithium spodumene in the world.[2] A nearby deposit named the Kapanga deposit has recently been discovered and has received JORC resource recognition.[11] “Greenbushes pegmatite is a giant pegmatite dike of Archean age with substantial Li-Sn-Ta mineralisation, including half the world’s Tantalum resource”.[2] The mine is estimated to have resources of 8.7Mt LCE and reserves of 6.8Mt LCE.[10] The mine produces the highest product quality and sets the benchmark for chemical-grade specifications of min. 6.0% Li2O and max. 0.8% Fe2O3 as compared to other concentrates typically in the range 5.5-5.8% Li2O and over 1% Fe2O3.[2]

Greenbushes mine operator

The mine was bought by Tianqi Lithium Corporation in 2013 however, Tianqi soon came into financial difficulties and was forced to offload the minority stake in the mine to the competing bidder the American-based Albemarle Corporation in 2014. The 49% owner Albemarle Corporation is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and is one of the world's largest lithium producers.

The majority owner Tianqi Lithium Corporation is based in Chengdu, listed on the Shanghai stock exchange and is one of the world's largest lithium producers. As of 2018, the company controls more than 46% of the world's global production of lithium.[3] Tianqi Lithium Corporation is the 2nd largest lithium company in the world by revenue and the largest in China.[9]

The entity Windfield Holdings Pty Ltd (51% ownership) was established to purchase the mine and later 49% of its stock was sold. Windfield wholly owns Talison Lithium Pty Ltd the entity that owns and operates the Greenbushes lithium mine.[8]

Similarly, Albemarle owns their 49% stake in Windfield Pty Ltd through an entity known as RT Lithium. The mine was originally owned and built by Talison Lithium Pty Ltd that has been operating for over 128 years mining tin, tantalum, and lithium. The mine has been producing lithium concentrates for over 20 years, since 1983 when it became the world's first company to produce lithium concentrates from a hard-rock facility.[7]

The lithium production industry is dominated by only four companies – Talison, SQM, Albemarle and FMC. Geographically Australia, China and Chile also account for about 85% of global lithium production.[3]

The joint venture partnership has come into turmoil recently due to Tianqi Corporations well documented financial problems, exhibited in part by the fact that in March 2020, MSP Engineering Pty Ltd took Tianqi Lithium Kwinana – the entity that operates the Kwinana processing facility to the High Court of Western Australia with a lawsuit claiming unpaid invoices of 35.9m AUD.[12][13] Part of Tianqi's problems emerged from their recent purchase of 20% of Chilean lithium producer SQM.[9] The case is currently undergoing legal arbitration as of October 2020. SQM is also Westfarmers partner in their new Kwinana processing facility. Westfarmers recently announced that they intend to continue with their plans for their facility despite the financial trouble of current producers.[14] They did however, delay the final investment decision on their Mt Holland lithium project to build a 45,000 tonnes/ year lithium hydroxide processing facility until sometime in the first quarter of 2021.[14]

Tianqi ultimate parent notes in their financial disclosures that they may be forced to offload part of its 49% stake in the mine or the Kwinana processing facility nearby, Albemarle was named as a potential bidder.[9] While they have also delayed the expansion plans of their Kwinana plant.[15]

Albemarle has recently announced that they have delayed the start of construction of their Kemerton plant until sometime in 2021 and has scaled back growth plans due to lithium growing pains.[15] Although, demand for lithium-ion batteries has grown rapidly the lithium mining industries expansion has largely outpaced demand for lithium hydroxide.[16] As such lithium mining has proved less profitable then mining for other minerals that are also inputs for batteries such as Cobalt.[16] Lithium is also relatively more abundant than other minerals that are seeing similar growth in demand.[16]

The Kwinana facility was due to be completed by 2019 however, financial constraints of their parent Tianqi and the COVID-19 outbreak have seen it still awaiting the commencement of production as of the end of 2020.[9]

• Official website