From Joe Tegtmeyer.
What a gorgeous and perfect day to fly over the Lithium Plant and get a one-month update on the progress! We see steady progress assembling the first half of the main processing plant, plus the large raw materials structure and preparations for the second half of the plant. This second part is most likely going to see major construction later in 2025 while the first half is gearing up for an early 2025 initial production target.
I did notice two new land clearing areas, with one in the middle part of the site, most likely for the main administrative buildings we see in the official renderings. The other one is far to the north, and might be for fill dirt extraction, but may also indicate a future construction site.
The big changes over the past month include nearly all of the superstructure & equipment has now been installed (for the first half of the main processing plant) including the final packaging and shipping section of the plant. There is a consolidation of construction across most of the site, and the huge raw materials processing structure is completed. The large raw materials conveyor system has been installed which connects the processing facility to the pyrometallurgical part of the main plant.
I did not see the rail spur under construction yet, and this will be needed at some point before processing can begin in order to bring in the raw Spodumene Concentrate from the port of Corpus Christi. This will run along the south of the main plant construction site buy so far, I do not see evidence of this construction yet.
Timestamps:
Introduction & overview with discussion & illustrations: 0:06 to 3:40
Lithium Plant Drone Flight & Narration: 3:56 to 17:37
A few additional highlights:
The rotating kiln and cooler assemblies on top of the massive foundations is making great progress on the first half of the production facility, with a lot of supporting structures already assembled and installed around these two gigantic “tubes” that form part of the pyrometallurgical portion of the processing portion of the facility.
Clamshells and associated hardware have been installed around the rotating cooler which is most likely related to maintaining the correct temperature necessary to transform Spodumene Concentrate 6 from the alpha (inert) to beta (reactive) material ready for the next step in the processing.
Much of the hydrometallurgical portion of the first half of the facility is nearing completion, including the installation of most of the large tanks necessary for this stage of processing.
More interesting discoveries and discussion in the main video! Thank you for watching and I hope this has been informative, educational, and entertaining for you. If you would like, please consider supporting me via Patreon (link is in the description of this video and in the video itself) so I can continue to make and share these incredible videos.
Follow me on
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/joeslastchancegarage
X @JoeTegtmeyer
Instagram (Joe’s Last Chance Garage) for the latest updates: #joeslastchancegarage
Facebook Joe Tegtmeyer and Joe’s Last Chance Garage
Video, photos, illustrations, and commentary on this video is by me, Joe Tegtmeyer unless otherwise annotated.
Music in this video is obtained from the YouTube free and unrestricted and royalty-free use library.
Drones used are DJI Mini 2, Mavic Air 2 & Air 3.
