NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has received a Clean Water Act (“CWA”) Section 404 Standard Individual Permit (“Section 404 Permit”) from the US Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) for the Company’s 100% owned Piedmont Lithium Project (“Project”) in North Carolina, USA. The USACE completed an Environmental Assessment (“EA”) of the Project in conjunction with six other state and federal agencies based on Piedmont’s December 2018 permit application and the Company’s responses to agency and public comments. The EA resulted in a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Project. The Section 404 Permit is the only federal permit required for the proposed mine and concentrator.
The Company has also received a CWA Section 401 Individual Water Quality Certification from the North Carolina Division of Water Resources. HDR Engineering’s Charlotte Office acted as lead consultant in the preparation of both permit applications.
The 404 and 401 permit approvals were achieved on the Company’s planned permit timeline originally announced in April 2018 and represent a major milestone in the development of the Project.
Piedmont will now accelerate development activities for the integrated lithium chemical business and the Company expects to complete a preliminary feasibility study (“PFS”) for its lithium hydroxide plant in Q2 2020 and a definitive feasibility study (“DFS”) for the Company’s integrated project by the end of 2020.
Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Securing a Section 404 Individual Permit is a major milestone for any natural resource project in the United States, and we are very pleased to have received this authorization. I want to thank our team members and advisors who have worked so diligently and cooperatively throughout this rigorous process, and also express our thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers for the highly professional manner in which they have approached this Project from day one. We will now move forward with the permitting of our chemical plant operations during 2020. Our project is unique in being the only spodumene-to-hydroxide project in the United States, and now also stands out as the most advanced American lithium project from a permitting perspective. We are very excited about the important milestones ahead of us as we look to deliver a DFS for a fully permitted integrated project by the end of 2020.”
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