Last week, the team at Alkemy Capital Investments plc (LON:ALK) (JV2:FRA) were invited to meet with the UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan to discuss the future working relationship between Australia and the UK to futureproof supplies of minerals that will be central to delivering the world’s net zero pledges.
The Alkemy team spent the day with Minister Trevelyan visiting Port Hedland, Australia’s largest port and the base for Alkemy’s planned Lithium Sulphate Refinery.
The Alkemy team, Minister Trevelyan, and representation from Western Australian mining giants Mineral Resources and Pilbara Minerals were hosted by Pilbara Ports Authority who showcased their world-class port infrastructure and the plans for the new critical minerals wharf at Lumsden Point, located within Port Hedland.
Earlier this year, Alkemy’s wholly-owned subsidiary Tees Valley Lithium (“TVL“) announced the company had secured a 43ha freehold site at the Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area, located 12km south of Port Hedland, to build a standalone low-carbon Lithium Sulphate refinery.
The site is ideally located close to power (both existing and planned renewables), gas and port infrastructure with easy direct road access to the new Lumsden Point container berth.
Through both the Port Hedland Lithium Sulphate refinery, and the Lithium Hydroxide refinery based in Teesside UK, TVL will have the capacity to process 180,000 tpa of lithium spodumene to 24,000 tpa of lithium hydroxide and aims to become the world’s lowest embedded carbon lithium refiner. TVL is currently in active discussions with potential feedstock partners.
Alkemy and TVL are creating the link between the world’s largest spodumene miners and Europe’s burgeoning EV market.
Minister for the Indo-Pacific Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a press release last week:
“Australia’s unmatched production capacity, combined with the UK’s mineral trading and finance expertise, will boost global supplies, help protect supply chains from future shocks, and support thousands of skilled, high-paying jobs.”
Sam Quinn, Director of Alkemy commented:
“Tees Valley Lithium is offering Western Australian lithium miners the opportunity to diversify their revenue streams by processing spodumene at Boodarie into a primary lithium sulphate, refining into either a hydroxide or carbonate at Wilton in the UK, and sell a branded product into the European premium market.”
The images of the site visit can be viewed in the below PDF.
