Century Lithium advances Angel Island feasibility with $4.01B after-tax NPV and integrated chlor-alkali design
Century Lithium — Angel Island: feasibility update and what it means
The 2026 feasibility replaces the prior multi-phase plan with a two-stage build that reduces near-term capital intensity and levers pilot-plant results into a scaled flowsheet. Phase 1 capex ~ $997M and a Phase 2 add-on ~ $660M underpin a base-case discounted valuation of $4.01 billion after tax using a $24,000/t lithium carbonate anchor price and an 8% discount. The study packages hydrochloric acid leaching, pilot-proven DLE, and an on-site chlor-alkali train that produces surplus sodium hydroxide as a saleable co-product — a design choice that materially changes operating-cost math.
Operating expense on a life‑of‑mine basis translates to roughly $4,389 per tonne of battery‑grade lithium carbonate, but the projected NaOH credit (~$5,393/t LCE) would flip the effective cash cost if applied as a co-product offset. Pilot testing reported leach and overall recoveries in the mid-80s percent range and product purity above 99.9%, data the study uses to justify DLE scale-up. Measured and indicated resources total multi‑million tonnes LCE while Proven & Probable reserves support a production plan sized to run for decades, with a 40-year modeled production window and a stated mine life exceeding 60 years.
Economics remain highly sensitive to lithium price: the model shows NPV falling to about $2.75B at $18,000/t and rising to roughly $5.26B at $30,000/t, with IRR correspondingly moving between the low‑20s and low‑30s percent. The updated cost base compared with the 2024 study narrows capital estimates materially — most notably by removing a previously planned third expansion — and credits vendor and engineering optimization plus lessons from the Nevada pilot work. The report flags key next steps: federal and state permitting under NEPA/BLM, grid interconnection talks with NV Energy, water-source definition, and targeted follow-up drilling and geotechnical studies.
FAST-41 listing increases federal transparency and should shorten stakeholder timelines, but the company still needs to lock offtake, project finance and detailed engineering before a construction decision. The combined chemistry and process integration—hydrochloric leach feeding DLE plus chlor-alkali reagent generation—creates a set of operational co-dependencies (power, water, reagent recycling) that shift execution risk from pure mining to integrated chemical manufacturing. For US battery and storage OEMs seeking domestic feedstock, Angel Island presents a lower‑carbon, vertically integrated alternative, but timing depends on permitting outcomes, grid and water agreements, and capital markets appetite for lithium projects with chemical co-production complexity.
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