Cypress Development (CYP.V) has started the pilot plant which will be treating the lithium-bearing claystone from the Clayton Valley lithium project in Nevada, using a chloride-based leaching process. The results of this pilot plant test run will be extremely important for the Clayton Valley project as this will allow the company to complete its feasibility study using chloride leaching which could be very beneficial to the overall economics.
A lot of eyes are on Cypress Development right now as it’s one of the few advanced US-based lithium stories out there. With the lithium carbonate price now exceeding $28,000/t, the time seems to be right for Cypress to aggressively advance the project towards feasibility, permitting and financing. Using an LCE price of $14,250/t, the after-tax IRR was estimated at US$2.2B in the 2020 pre-feasibility study and with an anticipated production rate of in excess of 27,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year (as per the pre-feasibility study), Clayton Valley is sufficiently large to draw some attention. We will have a more detailed update out soon.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Cypress Development. Cypress is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
