5E Advanced Materials selects Fluor to provide FEL-2 process engineering work

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Image credit: 5E Advanced Materials

5E Advanced Materials, an ASX-listed boron and lithium company, has tapped Fluor Corporation to be its engineering, procurement, and construction services provider. 

As part of the partnership. 5E will leverage Fluor’s experience and expertise to kickstart engineering process work on commercial Phase 1, advancing its leading boron and lithium project at the 5E Boron Americas Complex located in Fort Cady, California. 

Flour will lead the FEL-2 phase, which will directly feed into the upgrading of 5E Advanced Materials’ current S-K 1300 technical document into a Pre-feasibility Study upon completion. 

5E released the results of its S-K 1300 technical documents on its 5E Boron Americas Complex in mid-2023. 

Highlights of the study include measured, indicated, and inferred resource with 13.97 million short tons of boric acid and 0.31 million short tons of Lithium Carbonate. 

Phase 1 targets the production of 90,000 short tons of boric acid and 1,100 short tons of lithium carbonate with a targeted go-live date of H2 2026. 

“We are thrilled to engage a world-class EPC firm like Fluor, as their extensive track record will serve to be invaluable to 5E throughout this next phase of execution. Additionally, the work being conducted by Fluor will play an important role in ultimately getting our 5E Boron Americas complex to the planned PFS-level study,” said Susan Brennan, CEO of 5E Advanced Materials. 

“With 5E’s recent successful recapitalization, and commencement of mining operations earlier this year, this relationship further advances 5E into the next stage of project development as we continue to work towards our vision of successfully building a large-scale Boron and Lithium operations.”

Michael Woloschuk, executive director for critical minerals at Fluor’s Mining & Metals business line, said Fluor looks forward to supporting 5E on the project, which is expected to meaningfully contribute to US domestic supply of lithium, boron, and other critical materials. 

”Vertical integration of such minerals into a full value chain for advanced materials will strengthen domestic supply chains for high-value applications within various sectors like electric transportation, renewable energy, food and domestic security,” Woloschuk said.