(Kitco News) PMET Resources has submitted its environmental and social impact assessment for the Shaakichiuwaanaan CV5 lithium project in Quebec, advancing the project into the formal permitting phase as investors assess its economics against stronger lithium prices and emerging co-product potential.
The company confirmed the ESIA submission on April 1, 2026, marking a key step in the mine authorization process alongside its lithium-only feasibility study released in October 2025.
Speaking with Kitco Mining, President and CEO Ken Brinsden said the filing reflects years of technical, environmental, and community work completed since discovery. “It’s just the culmination of so much work by the team, basically four years' worth of work,” he said.
Brinsden said the project is now positioned to move through permitting over an estimated 18 to 24 months, providing a clearer timeline for development.
The milestone comes as market conditions have shifted from the assumptions used in the 2025 feasibility study, which outlined an after-tax net present value of about C$1.6 billion based on lithium-only economics at long-term prices near $1,300 per tonne. “Here we are today with spodumene trading in the range of $2,000- $2,500 a ton,” Brinsden said.
That divergence has focused attention on valuation upside not captured in the original study, with Brinsden noting the project’s co-products, particularly cesium and tantalum, that could materially affect its economics. “We’ve now got this amazing opportunity in co-products in the form of cesium and tantalum on top of the lithium-only opportunity,” he said.
Analysts are already modeling potential cost reductions from those byproducts. Brinsden said current estimates suggest co-product credits in the range of $100 to $200 per tonne, compared with an all-in sustaining cost of just under $600 per tonne for spodumene concentrate.
The company plans to update its feasibility work later this year to incorporate those contributions, including tantalum at the CV5 deposit and a broader assessment of lithium, cesium, and tantalum from the CV13 zone.
Scale remains central to the project’s positioning. The October 2025 feasibility study outlined production of up to 800,000 tonnes per year of spodumene concentrate, placing the operation among the largest globally. “By the time we’re in production, we’d be in the top five of the global hard rock operations,” Brinsden said.
He added that scale is a key factor in attracting strategic partners, pointing to Volkswagen and its battery subsidiary PowerCo. “They have an enormous span in front of them of projects that they can invest in, and they’ve chosen PMET,” he said.
Beyond lithium, the project also hosts a significant cesium resource, which the company has described as the largest known pollucite-hosted deposit globally. Brinsden said the scale of that opportunity could reshape its role in the market. “It’s absolutely enormous,” he said.
The project also benefits from relatively simple processing methods using conventional physical separation techniques, which Brinsden said support operational efficiency and cost control. “it actually doesn’t get much simpler in the mining world,” he said.
Brinsden added that continued drilling is expected to expand the resource base further. “if we keep drilling, there will be more discoveries,” he said.
Looking ahead, he said the key catalyst for investors will be demonstrating the full impact of co-products on project economics. “The scale in those co-product credits puts Shaakichiuwaanaan into a completely different league,” he said.
Watch the full video on the Kitco Mining channel.
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