Galan’s first lithium chloride at Hombre Muerto West: project metrics for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Galan Lithium has produced its first lithium chloride at the Hombre Muerto West brine project in Catamarca, Argentina, after wet commissioning a nanofiltration plant fed with 0.5% lithium brine and discharging product to final evaporation ponds. The three‑month evaporation stage is expected to yield 6% lithium chloride concentrate, underpinning Phase 1 nameplate output of 4,000 tpa LCE, backed by a 10,000‑tonne LCE brine inventory and a 45,000‑tonne offtake with US-based Authium. Pond construction to lift capacity to 5,200 tpa LCE by H1 2027 is planned, with permits in place for a staged expansion to 60,000 tpa.
Technical Brief
- Nanofiltration plant, completed March 2026, is already achieving impurity separation consistent with design assays.
- Independent laboratory chemical assays are being used to validate lithium chloride purity and impurity rejection performance.
- Optimisation phase will initially run at variable brine throughput before stabilising at design production rates.
- Brine inventory of ~10,000 t LCE equivalent is already stored in HMW evaporation ponds for ramp‑up.
- Authium offtake covers 45,000 t lithium chloride concentrate over 6–12 years from Phase 1 output.
- Nanofiltration plant has been sized to accommodate a capacity uplift to 5,200 tpa LCE by 2027 without major rework.
- Construction permits are in place for Phase 2 at 21,000 tpa LCE, enabling a four‑phase pathway to 60,000 tpa.
Our Take
With Wood Mackenzie projecting China to control 39% of global lithium production by 2030, early lithium chloride output from Galan Lithium’s Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina positions a Latin American asset in a market segment where our database otherwise skews heavily towards China-backed projects in Africa and Australia.
Argentina’s RIGI regime coming into effect in 2024 gives Galan Lithium a more predictable fiscal setting just as Phase 1 at Hombre Muerto West ramps towards a 2026 completion, which is likely to be important for securing offtake terms against Chinese converters highlighted in the Wood Mackenzie-linked coverage.
Among recent lithium pieces in our coverage, most new production stories focus on Australian hard‑rock mines such as Mount Holland and Bald Hill, so a brine-based lithium chloride route in Catamarca province adds process diversity and may appeal to North American and European buyers looking to diversify away from Australian–China supply chains.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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