Canada approves James Bay lithium project in Quebec
The Canadian government on Monday announced the approval of Galaxy Resources’ James Bay lithium project in Quebec. As proposed, the spodumene operation would include an open-pit mine and concentrator facility, tailings, waste rock, ore, and overburden storage areas, as well as related infrastructure. It is expected to produce an average of 5,480 tonnes of ore per day over a mine life of 15 to 20 years.
“This is an important decision for Canada,” Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson said in a statement. “The James Bay Lithium Mine Project will produce a key ingredient of clean technology like electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.”
Galaxy Resources Limited is a leading producer and developer of lithium with an impressive and diversified asset portfolio including an operational hard rock mine and concentrator in Western Australia, a tier 1 brine development project in Argentina and a strategic, hard rock spodumene project in Canada.
Galaxy is in a unique position to fuel a global electrical revolution with both its brine and hard rock development projects on an expedited path to production. Galaxy strives to become a major global producer of lithium and is executing its corporate strategy to swiftly deliver its two world-class growth assets to the market in a sustainable and competitive manner.
The James Bay spodumene project in Québec, Canada is being accelerated to a construction ready status. The wholly owned project has a high grade, near surface deposit and is ideally located to supply the rising lithium demand from the North American and European electric vehicle market.
The Project is located in northern Québec, approximately 130 km east of James Bay and the Cree Nation of Eastmain community. Québec is a highly attractive investment destination for lithium production due to its supportive resource development sector, access to skilled labour and its proximity to the emerging European and North American electric vehicle markets. Canada also has free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union.
Galaxy is proposing to develop a lithium mine located adjacent to the Billy Diamond Highway which provides access to key infrastructure in the region. The 2021 James Bay Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) details a 330ktpa spodumene operation utilising conventional open pit mining methods and a process flowsheet and plant design similar to Mt Cattlin.
Galaxy’s spodumene expertise from the success of its Mt Cattlin operations has been applied to the design and development of the James Bay Project.
As a result, the PEA demonstrates that James Bay will be the most competitive operation in the region with the lowest capital and operating costs. Shallow, high-grade mineralisation with favourable characteristics also supports the low-cost operation.
The Project has a Mineral Resource Estimate of 40.3 Mt @1.40% Li2O and mineralisation is open to the north and east and preliminary exploration have been targets identified.
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