PMET Resources has more than tripled the stated value of the CV5 pegmatite at its wholly owned Shaakichiuwaanaan project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec. The updated feasibility study, released on November 10, puts after-tax net present value at a discount rate of 8 percent at C$5.10 billion (about US$3.72 billion), with an internal rate of return of 40.4 percent and a payback of 2.7 years. The October 2025 lithium-only study had put after-tax value at C$1.59 billion with an 18.1 percent return.
Most of the increase comes from assumptions rather than from the ground. The new base case uses a long-term spodumene concentrate price of US$1,788 a tonne, up from US$1,221, plus US$120 a pound for contained tantalum pentoxide. On a like-for-like basis that strips out the price and exchange rate changes, PMET puts after-tax value at C$2.3 billion, still C$0.7 billion above the 2025 result, with C$519 million of that gain attributed to the tantalum co-product and C$180 million to mine plan improvements. At a spodumene price near broker consensus of about US$1,400 a tonne, the study value falls to about C$3.29 billion.
The plan itself has been resequenced. Instead of opening with an open pit, Phase 1 now leads with underground mining of the high-grade Nova Zone alongside a 2.2 million tonne a year dense media separation plant, ramping to about 560,000 tonnes a year of spodumene concentrate in the first three production years. A second plant starting construction in Year 3 lifts total ore capacity to 5.1 million tonnes a year and nominal concentrate output to about 800,000 tonnes a year over a mine life of roughly 20 years. The probable reserve is 83.0 million tonnes grading 1.27 percent lithium oxide and 148 parts per million tantalum pentoxide, including a maiden tantalum reserve.
Costs move in the project’s favour. Life-of-mine total cash operating cost falls 19 percent to C$593.5 a tonne of concentrate, helped by a tantalum credit of C$147.8 a tonne on average output of about 635,000 pounds a year of contained tantalum pentoxide, although transport to Quebec ports still adds C$302.3 a tonne. Total development capital is about C$2.06 billion before anticipated pre-production revenues and tax credits, or C$1.68 billion net, close to the 2025 plan despite the added tantalum circuit.
No final investment decision has been made. PMET targets a decision in late 2027, commissioning of the first plant in late 2029 and commercial production at the end of the first quarter of 2030, and it holds preliminary, non-binding letters of interest or support from Societe Generale, Export Development Canada, KfW IPEX-Bank and another Canadian government-backed institution. A separate preliminary economic assessment covering CV5 and CV13 across lithium, caesium and tantalum is due this quarter, and confirmation of an underground bulk sample program is expected before the end of 2026.