Lepidico says the Karibib Lithium Project site works will start in May this year, and mining operations are expected to begin in early 2025.
The Karibib lithium projects comprise the Helikon and the Rubicon mines.
In its corporate update Monday, Lepidico said once operational, the project will create 115 direct jobs and more than 800 indirect jobs.
Lepidico has set aside US$63 million to develop the Rubicon and Helikon mines and a 60,000 tpa output concentrator startup in August 2025.
The Helikon 2-4 drilling exercise to extend Phase 1 life to more than 20 years is ongoing.
The project could be the first known lithium reserve discovered in Namibia in the 1930s.
Mining activities started at the Rubikon Mine by the Klochner Group of Germany around 1950.
Project tenure includes the historic Rubikon, Helicon, and Fricke’s lithium-tantalum-caesium mines, which operated intermittently from 1930 to 1994.
Between 1980 and 1994, the Rubikon mine reportedly produced some 17,000 t of lithium mineral concentrates from small-scale open pit and underground mining.
Helikon 1, located 750 m south of Helikon 2–5, is the largest exposed pegmatite at the project. It has a strike length of 350 m, an average thickness of 65 m, and a dip of 70° to the north.
The Helikon 2-5 pegmatites define a discontinuous strike length of 1,700 m with variable dips and thicknesses.
The project is on Farm Okongava 72, owned by the Namibian Government.
Lepidico has an offtake agreement with Traxys Europe signed in December 2021 for 100% of lithium hydroxide (5,000 tpa) production volume from Phase 1.
Traxys agreed to act as principal and provide sales marketing, logistics, and trade finance services for seven years with an option to extend.
In addition, Traxys will act as an agent for 100% of the production of caesium sulfate solution (400 tpa) from the Abu Dhabi Chemical Plant.
Traxys is a multinational marketer, distributor, and trader of base metals and concentrates, chemicals and industrial minerals, rare earths, uranium, materials for steel mills and foundries, and minor and alloying metals.
