Macusani Yellowcake, the company in charge of the project, estimates to set up a refinery in 2028.

The Macusani Yellowcake company, in charge of the Falchani lithium project, located in Puno (Peru), estimated that it would begin operations in 2027, for which it must allocate a total investment of US$847 million.

The general manager of the firm, Ulises Solís, also pointed out that just one year later, in 2028, they would be setting up the refinery necessary for the project.

“We believe that we can get this project underway by the second half of 2027. Our annual production for the first 4 years will be 25,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent per year. We will make cash, we recover the investment and from there we will go to 53,000 tons, in year number 8, and then reach 100,000 tons starting in year number 9,” the engineer explained to the Institute of Mining Engineers of Peru (IIMP).

RESERVATIONS FOUND

Solís highlighted that, so far, Falchani is the only lithium project discovered in our country. He maintained that the company, after having invested around US$ 82 million in exploration in Corani (Puno), found 9.5 million tons of lithium carbonate.

“We have arrived at 9.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent as resources, but these are measured resources, indicated resources and inferred resources. The interesting thing is that 5.1 million of these resources are already measured and indicated, and it can be said that we already have reserves,” he noted.

Under this premise, he emphasized that, with the reserves found, Peru becomes the fourth country in the world with rock lithium resources. In this way, the nation would have the opportunity to compete with Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Australia.