Century Lithium advances Angel Island plan toward environmental review
BLM's completeness finding leaves pipeline baseline studies and the level of environmental review to be settled before mine-plan approval.
Mara Quinlan
Century Lithium Corp. CVELCE OTCMKTSCYDVF FRAC1Z said on Monday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has deemed its Angel Island lithium mine plan complete. The 100 per cent-owned Nevada project still requires environmental analysis and public scoping before BLM can approve the plan, the company said.
Century shares CVELCE last traded at C$0.20 on the TSX Venture Exchange at 4:00 p.m. EST on Nov. 6. That quote predates Monday's announcement.
BLM's Tonopah Field Office notified Century in a Nov. 3 letter that its Mine Plan of Operations and Nevada Reclamation Permit Application was complete, according to the company's Nov. 9 release. Baseline studies for the proposed water-supply pipeline route remain pending.
BLM must determine whether Angel Island requires an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. The federal permitting dashboard lists a planned EIS process with a Feb. 4, 2028 target for a record of decision, but the schedule is an estimate.
"It confirms that our Project is ready to move into the environmental review phase of the process," chief executive Bill Willoughby said in the release.
The completeness determination establishes the plan as the basis for BLM's environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Century says the plan would be revised as necessary after that analysis and public scoping, before BLM could approve it.
The third-party environmental contractor will now begin preparing supplemental information and environmental reports to support the review document. BLM must also document its acceptance of all required baseline studies and reports; Century said it would update the review schedule once the agency determines the review level.
The account of the completeness letter comes from Century's release; the letter and underlying application were not reviewed for this story.
Century submitted the plan on Sept. 3 for a proposed operation covering about 2,364 acres of disturbance within a 5,379-acre project area on BLM-administered land. The September plan describes shallow surface mining without anticipated drilling or blasting, with claystone ripped, loaded and hauled for processing.
The September plan envisages two stages, starting at about 8,300 tons of daily feed for the first four operating years. Capacity would rise to as much as 16,500 tons a day from year five.
The proposed plant would use tank leaching, direct lithium extraction and crystallization to make battery-grade lithium carbonate. An integrated chlor-alkali plant would supply hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, with surplus sodium hydroxide intended for sale.
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The next dated federal review milestone is a June 4, 2027 target for an EIS notice of intent, subject to BLM's determination of the review level.
